Our company is developing 2 generations of a product in parallel. Our product cycle is about 2-3 years. Today we're working on:

* generation **N** "production": next product to be released, getting things into the market, new features, fixing bug
* generation **N+1** "research": concept work, studies, prototypes, research, requirements analysis

We're follow the Scrum methodology (roles, backlog, sprints, ...) in our team where possible, but the transition is still in progress. Especially: the rest of the company is (still) following a waterfall approach. The focus of our management is mostly on generation N.

Our company so far tried the following project structures, but all have severe drawbacks:

symbols: 

(+) = good 

(‒) = bad

* Two separate teams for production (generation N) and research (generation N+1):

	+ (+) good progress in the research for generation N+1
	+ (+) Production team can focus on generation N.
	+ (‒) The research team has the more interesting job, the production job is not so popular.
	+ (‒) Knowledge loss when transferring a project from research to production.
	+ (‒) The research team never experiences the problems of the production team and vice 
	versa. Especially the research team does not investigate all of the relevant aspects.
* One team for both generations:

	+ (+) Good knowledge sharing between generations.
	+ (+) No handover required.
	+ (‒) N+1 does not get the attention it deserves as the management focus in on N.
	+ (‒) So there are not many innovations in generation N+1 as we did not have time for it.
* Have only one team but dedicate 2 (or 3) "researchers" to focus on generation N+1:

	+ (+) Good knowledge sharing between generations.
	+ (+) No handover required.
	+ (‒) In the beginning: Inefficient meetings (daily, sprint planning) as the two sub teams work on different topics.
	+ (‒) In the end: The research progress is slow, as the researchers get pulled into production problems.

How should we set up our projects in this environment?