In the industrialized countries university research and state-financed research are
increasingly evaluated from the point of view of their contribution to technology transfer,
industrial innovation, and the competitiveness of national industries. Political debates
on the viability of orienting basic research toward practical applications are paralleled
by discussions, among social scientists, about the risks and opportunities of political
direction over science. These debates are the frame of reference for this study, which
analyzes the differences between basic and applied research, their correlates and
consequences, in high-temperature superconductor research in the Federal Republic of
Germany. It will be shown that basic and applied research are fundamentally different
in their social organization, their research goals, and their research strategies. These
differences are in contrast to the call of science policy for more intense interaction and
assimilation. Nevertheless, there are conditions under which basic or applied re
searchers will partially follow "foreign" orientations and strategies. These conditions
may, in part, be shaped by policy decisions.
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