If we are going to individually recruit scientists I have a suggestion. After the recruiting interface and some other interfaces get cleaned up, the scientists could get individual skills. A few examples would be:
- Vehicles and v.weapons
- Alien biology and theory
- Personal equipment (guns and armor)
- Quantum physics (alien tech theory)
This would introduce some resource mgmt for the research too. It wouldn't be necessary to make a ton of difference, just let those good at managment gain a day or two in the research of a big topic. Remember, we use the best of mankind, they can do any research, but is bound to be more skilled in some field of science.
While we're at it, make that research guy that write the reports a fixed member of that research staff (first in the list), and max his stats in all subjects. He should be the best scientist that mankind could find in the 2080's, so let him have his 15 minutes (and put some developers mug on his model skin) :-)
By the way, is it some model limitation that makes both scientists and medics look the same? I'd suggest a white thigh length labcoat for the scientists and maybe white trousers and short sleeve shirt for the medics. Possibly medic green for them. That long coat they are using now gives me the shivers...