The goal of government-funded/academic research is not (or I should better say: was not) to directly lead to technological innovations but to expand human knowledge. Technological advancements are built on the basic research performed predominantly by academic researchers. Any application using nuclear technology would not be possible without the studies undertaken by Marie Curie, Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, and Ernest Rutherford to name just a few. Our understanding and use of electricity would not be possible without the likes of Faraday, Maxwell, and Hans Christian Ørsted. Laser-technology is based on the work of Planck, Einstein, and Alfred Kastler among others. Almost as an aside, antibiotics were actually discovered due to academic research by Fleming, lecturer at St. Mary's Hospital and Professor at the University of London. Similarly, the first modern day vaccines were developed by Enders and colleagues, and owe a great deal to the discoveries made by Pasteur, Ehrlich, Koch and, of course, Jenner.
Many of our current technologies would not be possible by the knowledge gained through academic research which lays the foundation on which innovative products are built upon. Government-funded research has the advantage that it works without a profit motive thereby enabling researchers to explore new paths without knowing where those will take them. I am sure when Henry Dale discovered histamine he would have never thought that antihistamines will become one of the most widely used drugs at least in the western world. In addition, government-funded research can actually enable more rapid innovation. Just assume a physicist would describe the theoretical design of an actually possible nuclear fusion reactor and publish it. Now dozens of companies can put their engineers to work to build the most efficient, safe, and cost-effective reactor and bring that to the market as fast as possible. We could choose which unit would best serve our needs for safe, reliable, and clean energy. Contrast that to the possibility that an industrial lab made that discovery, patents it and there would only be one choice for us.
Within the last 20 years, there has been an increasing push on academics to do more "applicable" research, to patent findings, and to "spin-off" their own companies, all in the name of efficiency and profitability. We need to be careful to not undermine our long-term benefit due to our quest for short-term gains. We may just stifle true innovative research that goes beyond our current knowledge.
