Doing CM research missions is such a nightmare that it absolutely has to be considered a bug.
9 out of 10 times the NPC who gives you your item is in the retail area, meaning you need to leave the HQ, go up a level, and walk down the stairs into the retail area to get the item. If nothing else I feel that the two NPCs in the retail level should at least be relocated to somewhere in the faction HQ.
You could theoretically cancel the mission and try again but you will lose faction sympathy and only have a 1 in 10 chance of getting the close NPC. (Unless I just had terrible luck). I'm not sure if TL matters but these were all done with the level 80 research missions. As it stands this makes doing CM research missions next to pointless.