The only research I know of is the potion experiments.
What was the old system like/why was it removed?

Hello! I think it would add an excellent thematic air of mystery/esoterica if there were a way to learn spells and moon/element ranks from objects on grid. A spellbook of sorts is possible, but I think that would be 1) too easy and 2) not conspicuous enough. I propose an interactive object of sorts ...

Personally I like this idea, it sounds like it wouldn't be particularly difficult to implement, and having tooling guidelines is always handy.