You are able to use accelerators in the game. Those can be won at the Tollhouse, be rewards for successful missions or loots and can be bought at the shop. There are various accelerators which skip a specific amount of time of the task. You cannot speed up the recovery of the alliance research or the duration of a buff or shield. The recovery of alliance research can only be sped up by using gold to instantly finish it and the duration of a shield or buff can only be ended completely by canceling it.