Research and Exploration is controlled by the Starfleet. All the exploration and science ships are under command of Starfleet. Starfleet does have a rather independent part working as the research and exploration division, but it's still completely under control of the Starfleet's officials. All research development is done in the Starfleet. The Committee of Fleet Admirals usually sends all the projects the research staffs need to do. Although on some cases the science teams themselves have been able to pick their next project. The Committee of Fleet Admirals has five admirals from the science division, which then represent them in the committee.
The HQ for the research department is located on Earth; due to the fact that the Human-Gigerdian research teams are all located there. They've also been the most succesful teams in both the GA's R&E and in the Starfleet. Currently there's 15 Human-Gigerdian research teams working on Earth and 12 on Gigerdi Prime.
The exploration part has been concentrated to Andromeda galaxy where both UFP and GA are actively exploring the space.
