It’s very tough to say without actually knowing what your current standings are.
Easiest and fastest way is to first train up the Diplomacy skill, check your standings and if over -2.00 Faction, can contact the Research agent. If not, then run Career agents and or Data Center agents of the same Faction as the Research agent to gain standings for access.
More info on that in ‘The Plan’…
Hardest and slowest way is to contact CCP / Customer Support via Support Ticket for can’t access agent, etc.