Noob needs help with Researching

Hi! This is the first SE I play and I think its great. I played MOO2 and galactic Civs until I found this amazing game. However, I have a problem that gets me stuck in every game.

I have a problem with researching. Heres what I usually do:

* Start the game selecting a race wich has the Natural Traders trait (they dont need spaceports) and that lives in Rock-tipe planets.
* My first research is alwais either Ice-world or Gas-world colonization, so I can colonize more worlds.
* While investigating that (200,000 Research Points), I construct some explorer and Rock colonization Ships and colonize all the rock worlds in my solar sistem.
* I make the worlds I colonize Research Compounds (Lots of Laboratories)
* Eventually ice or gas colonization is researched and I start investigating the other colonization tipe.
* Everything goes well until suddendly, all my Research Points drop to zero and the research screen says: Time to complete: Never. If I select every single planet, it says the cuantity of RP that it is generating, but in the upper bar, near Intelligence Points, RP=0! No reason given in thew news or in somewhere else.

Maybe I am doing something wrong, or maybe that happens for a reason, in that case Id like to know why that happens. It happens to me on every single game I start, so I loose quick, because other empires tech up while Im stuck there. Anyone has some explanation, please? Thank you. BTW Im playing 1.33.