Not directly management books. I work in an R&D lab myself and two books I found useful in thinking about the structure and evaluation of projects:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530415.The_Art_of_Doing_...

Peopleware[0]

If you lead any kind of team in IT it is required reading. It will make you a bit sad though: it was written in 1987 presenting common problems and solutions to said problems. We're still struggling to get the solutions implemented today.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware

Much less true science there. Two biographies worth reading. One is about aircraft R&D, the other a computer. Both fall on the R side of R&D.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skunk-works-leo-janos/11247...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-of-a-new-machine-tracy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month is a classic for a reason, on this exact topic.

Great question, I've taken some of these books down to read later.

I was fascinated by The Pentagon Wars [0]. Arguably US Military is one of the biggest bureaucracies that spends tons of money on R&D projects. Apart from describing the issues with the projects themselves, the author describes how structuring the incentives could potentially pervert the process of developing new tech. I really loved it.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Pentagon-Wars-Reformers-Challenge-Gua...

I have a completed outline for an Applied Research Management book following the old Scott Meyers format.

Of course, I am slowly working on the writing phase.

Hit me up by email if you would like to pick over the outline.

I enjoyed The History of the Making of the Atomic Bomb