Have you considered adding the ability to allow research to interact with the Game Stages mod? In particular this would allow things like unlocking Tinkers Construct materials/tool types individually, or unlocking features in Waila (via the TinkerStages and Waila Stages addons respectively).

Download experimental release 1.2.7 for GameStages support

{
  "display": {},
  "gamestage": "insert required stage here",
  "idea": {},
  "reseach": {},
  "unlock": [
    {
      "type": "gamestages:stage",
      "stage": "insert stage that is given here"
    }
  ]
}