How to reduce research times?

There are a number of ways to do this. And it's especially worth it if you are researching some items which normally take over 100 days!

First of all make sure your Academy is as high a level as you can practically get it. For most this means level 24, as the final jump to level 25 has a ton of pre-requisites.

Make sure that in the Academy you have researched Mathematics, this offers up to 15% reduction in research time when you have it at level 10.

Also, wait for the Research Kingdom Buff, this will also reduce overall research time.

Couple that with a research time reduction rune that you can get from killing some guardians, and finally, ask for the Scientist title, before you start your research task.

So, yeah, all of these things will only effect research items that you start once you have the boosts in effect. They will have no effect on items you are already researching!

Once you have started the research, you can say thanks to the king for giving you the scientist buff and they can give it to someone else.

Using all of the above, and being part of an active alliance will easily take off over half of the normal research time for items, saving you a ton in speedups.

Then just wait for the right time to finish the research, maybe there is a speedup related event, or one which requires research points, and finish the job then.