How do I actually research something?

Question

My base in RimWorld doesn't have very fertile ground outside. It's mostly sand, and incapable of sustaining my crops.

I realize I can research Hydroponics so I can grow crops. The problem is, I don't know how to actually research anything. I have a research station, I have someone (a scientist) tasked with research, I even have Hydroponics selected as my research subject. Nothing's happening. I tried prioritizing Research on my scientist, but that didn't do anything.

How exactly do I research something?

Answer 1

Researching, like feeding your prisoners, requires that you assign colonists to research. This is done in the overview screen:

Once you have one or more colonists assigned to research, you will need to build a research bench for them to research at:

Finally, you need to select a project to research, this is done in the Research screen, which is available in the bottom right corner of the screen next to Overview.

Select the Unresearched tab, and then start your research process by clicking on the Research button for the project you wish to research:

Remember that research is the lowest priority task - if you can't get your colonist to research, try changing the priority they assign to their tasks, or, deselect all other tasks for your researcher. This is demonstrated in my first screenshot.

Once you've got 'Researching' selected against one of your colonists, you can also click that colonist and then make them interact with the research bench.