Opinion Piece: Applied research won't flourish without basic science
I remember reading through the submissions to Te Ara Paerangi - Future pathways and coming across some pushing for applied, quickly commercialisable research over basic / fundamental research. Those submissions were from business owners looking to leverage publicly funded research for their private gain. With the change in government, that view appears to have become policy. The piece linked below counters that approach.
elifesciences.org
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Those business owners need to get themselves a copy of this book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174761/the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge
Flexner’s defense of the value of “the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge” may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation
