how do you research?

[Cpt. Ginger O'Toole]

I've lots of research parts, but I can't do anything with them? I go to the research section when I dock but it won't let me do a single thing except stare longingly at white silhouettes

[RCMidas]

Hold your action button/key over the unlockable equipment to assign a research part to it. Repeat this for each research part it needs. For instance, the first rod requires two research parts, so you must press and hold twice to assign both of them. This unlocks the next two rods.

[Cpt. Ginger O'Toole]

I go into the research section and there's not even the option to press the action key. Literally nothing except X to leave

[RCMidas]

Hmm. Can we get a screenshot perhaps? So long as you have at least one research part in either your cargo or your storage, you should be able to highlight the desired piece of equipment and either hold LEFT CLICK, the A button (on Xbox) or the X button (on PS), to assign the part to that piece of equipment.

[Psyringe]

Are you still at a very early stage of the game's main quest? I'm not sure if the "research" function is available right away, so if you perhaps ignored the main quest so far, then you may need to progress for a bit until the functionality unlocks. (But again, I could be totally wrong here, just throwing in something to consider.)

[RCMidas]

Day 1. Fully fish the closest mackerel and cod, sell the fish, talk to the mayor to manually pay off the rest of the debt, you get a research part, go to research tab, assign aforementioned part. Easy as that. So I don't know what's happening to the poor fellow here.

[Fulleclipse]

The Research tab is the Gears icon under the drydock icon

[Vorshin]

you MUST have them in your boat and NOT storage, they are not seen there