[pgbovine]

See here: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/technology/report/20...

While some of this foundational work was done in government labs, a fair amount came out of university labs.

The primary outcome of university research is validated ideas in the form of academic papers. 99% of those papers will be forgotten in a decade (and derided by cynics in hindsight as "useless ivory towering"). But the remaining 1% will push the world forward in meaningful ways. The main issue is that it's impossible to tell which projects will lead to that 1%, so funding agencies try to invest broadly. That's the optimistic view, at least :)