Lambda the Ultimate

I'm currently following a course called 'Topics on Programming Languages', which has only one practical assignment: write a research paper.
There are three topics of which I was most interested in 'Partial Evaluation'. My problem is that there does not seem to be a lot of active
research in this area, or maybe I'm searching in the wrong places. However, I would like to ask the LtU users if they know of any interesting
problems involving partial evaluation. I have a month for the research and am to work in a group. A problem may be a practical one for which
I can analyse a solution in this month and maybe implement it as project afterwards.

I'm not asking for direct help, just pointers in the right direction and maybe some inspiration. Thx in advance.