Regulations on the animated series canon are hit and miss. I would say a cautious yes as like Luke has said, we have had catians here before, but I am not 100% sure either.
Shadowfleet Regulations section 2 (Posting) Does state that non-cannon is allowed to an extent, but we are all often told that non-cannon is not allowed. HOWEVER although it does not say much about R&D, it does talk about non-cannon ship classes needing to be authorised from admin, so my suggestion as your idea is an R&D one, would be to PM a site admin or your Senior officers.