Looking over the technologies part of the storyline - black projects, horror stories, death and mayhem... This gives me an idea:
What about these black projects? Maybe we could give certain players (who have distinguished themselves or something) the option to participate in the experiments - with a high amount of risk vs. reward of course. If the experiment goes wrong, then the player could potentially die. However, if the experiment succeeds, they gain great recognition, and get a big reward (likely related to the experiment), in addition to a pretty big boost to their skills.
The success would involve some amount of randomness, but would also rely heavily on the players' skills in research and the like. Perhaps that could even be a specific skill area - Experimental Project Research or something like that.
~Brian