declare chapter 11 bankruptsy and you`ll be ok <(^_^)>
Actually that would be a cool idea. Have penalties like losng 10 levels of infrastructure, having all your resources reduced to 0, cash reset to 10,000 credits, and can only be activated if you have a planet count of 1. Also have a limit of 2 per year as well. That would make it a little less painful than losing ALL research (which hurts the most if you`re an old empire).