Occams Razor

A question about research and how it works came up and I heard conflicting opinions from players. I asked staff and they answered how I expected research works, but I wanted to both confirm his and to let other players read this post and know how research is handled.

Now, I had assumed that research would be cumulative.
Say a particular topic needed 5 research points spent on it to get a good solid answer. Now the first option is to get 5 points from various people and they all work the same project and, Boom, Answer.
But if you are like me and are researching a personal topic that you don't want everyone in on, you spend the research you have, say 1 point at a time per event. You don't get an immediate answer, but if you keep researching the same subject 5 times, 5 events later it would add up to 5 points and you would get the good answer then.

But, I had at least one other player state that they thought research points could be hoarded, like production points and you would need to save 5 points and then spend them all at once to research the topic. I don't think it works this way. But I'd rather ask a silly question than be doing it wrong for events at a time.

(Disclaimer, all numbers mentioned above are for example purposes only, I'm just guessing)

Whereas Production Points represent materials things in large part (Oh look, the last gold plated widget I needed for my Widgetometer!), Research Points represent time, effort, and access to information.

If anybody figures out how to hoard time for discretionary expenditure FOR THE LOVE OF BOB let me know how to do it.

Time in a Bottle ? Isn't that a Jim Croce song?

Thanks, Jacob. I guess that confirms the use it or lose it nature of research.