For anyone still trying the mod, I've found a work-around. Six and a half hours in when I repaired the lab. -.-
Undo all your researches by typing
/c for playername, tech in pairs(game.player.force.technologies) do tech.researched=false game.player.force.set_saved_technology_progress(tech,0) end
and then researching the first lab tech again.
Force undoing only the lab research by /c game.player.force.technologies["electric-lab"].researched = false
and then researching it again does NOT advance the story, probably because the initial laboratory tech for burner labs is ALSO called electric lab, at least in my game. If in your game the tech is indeed called "Laboratory" or whatever the mission notes say, undoing only that tech MAY work, BUT the next mission is to research radar, so you're probably better off un-researching all techs.
EDIT: Meant to edit first post, not quote it.