Learn English – How to we describe a broad sense of taste

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English lists 'real' as an adverb also, but qualifies it as 'American English spoken'

Even Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary has the following note for 'real as an adverb:

Most handbooks consider the adverb real to be informal and more suitable to speech than writing. Our evidence shows these observations to be true in the main, but real is becoming more common in writing of an informal, conversational style. It is used as an intensifier only and is not interchangeable with really except in that use.

I, therefore, don't think it's incorrect to say something like "It is a real cool answer" in informal speech and writing! Here, 'real' is an intensifier, that is, an adverb qualifying an adjective!

I think you should concentrate more on finding the desired adjective to describe your “research work” or better yet your “research results” than on finding one to describe your “research topic,” because based on the way you describe your “research topic,” I think it sounds like a “general research topic,” which really doesn’t give the positive spin that I’m sure you are after.

Here’s one way that you could perhaps put a positive spin on having [had] a “general” topic while using either (or both) of your two good suggestions (“multi-purpose and “versatile”) to describe the “results” that you achieved:

“The topic of my research was/is sufficiently general (or “just general enough”) to permit me to work on multiple applications/issues and achieve multi-purpose/[and] versatile results.”