The mod seems ok so far, but I found a few things I think could be improved:

• Add a book item you use to open the UI. I just like having a physical item to use rather than clicking a button.
• Separate researches into multiple files/folders (perhaps like From the Ground Up does?) If you have more than a few things, it quickly becomes a massive pain to navigate the .json file.
• Keep all the research stuff in their file. So instead of having 3 separate files for research stuff (like it seems to be rn), let us set everything in 1 file for 1 research.
• Better explanation for how the entire TNL section works. It's a bit of a guessing game as-is, perhaps you could add a wiki to this repo or something?
• Lines that link up research in the UI, so that you know what lets you unlock which thing.
• Perhaps a default way to obtain Research Dust? Maybe a recipe you can disable in the config or something?
• More tiers for the Research Orb, or being able to make your own ones in the config

Other than those few things though, I do think this is a pretty good first research mod for 1.16.

Love how it uses a config instead of a datapack, always makes a mod 100x better in my book.