That is a great aim, I wish you all the best in it.
I have often wondered if any of the larger or older reed manufacturers from Italy (or the resulting modern versions on the form of mergers) ever tried to perform such research. Or if their approach was something different more akin to a tradition with incremental improvements. Who knows, in either case they might not necessarily want to share those ideas and knowledge, business is business after all.
May I recommend visiting someone who makes reeds and if they are amenable to it just spend a day or so having them explain and make some reeds to directly show the ins and outs of what problems have been encountered here and there, I have found it very hard to describe or understand what someone means by say "buzzing" or "beating" without actually hearing it in person, not just recordings. Perhaps even a collaboration with a reed maker would be possible. In my experience of academia there is sometimes a disjuncture between academic pursuits and the world of business - even to the point of each side not understanding what the other is even trying to say, when really they should be getting on well. Your research could be of real interest to existing reed makers, its great you are talking to some on here but I really would recommend visiting someone as well, you would be very surprised what unexpected approaches and practices you might find, in practice sometimes applied sort of like rules of thumb.
Best of luck with the project, I will follow it with great interest and respect.