There is a big misunderstanding about “the linear model” – the notion that there is a pipeline in science that goes from research to development – in the White House's report "Science A New Golden Age". The report says that “the linear model no longer holds” because “modern discovery [..] is increasingly shaped by continuous iteration between fundamental and applied work”. That part may be true, but the real reason for distinguishing these two is to protect the ability of basic researchers to choose to understand how something works even if there is no immediate use for it at all. And we must continue to protect that ability because - counter-intuitively! - that is how the most useful things are eventually discovered.

Doing good science is 90% finding a science buddy to constantly talk to about the project.