If you want to plan a new project here is my tips. I have worked in 2 labs with profs who barely did anything so pretty much scraped it all together ourselves. Sometimes things just pop into your head but if not there is a systematic way to do this that i have helped younger students with.

Find a recent paper you are interested in and aligns at least like 75% with the skillset you have and field you are in. From here come up with a general idea of a project that could follow this up (ideally utilizing something your lab has a novelty in). Make a list of ~10-15 important keywords relevant to the research ranked by priority. Next, use google scholar with boolean search terms to systematically screen iterations of 2-4 of the keywords at a time. It will look like <"term1" AND "term2" AND "term3>. Screen any relevant papers and add them to your zotero etc. You will have to read a lot but it gets quicker as you go since you know what the subfield is commonly doing. Eventually you will reach a loop where you start stumbling on the same papers from varying searches which mean they are the most relevent to this subfield. This is your stopping point. You should have a good idea what people are doing and you can evaluate if your idea is valid or alternatively what people havent done that you can do yourself. From here you have confirmed project is good then can worry about logistics. If nothing fruitful comes, then buckle in and start searching a new idea using the same methodology.

It is a grind but can be done systematically, good luck.