“Basic and Applied Research”. Historical Semantics of a Key Distinction in 20th Century Science Policy

The conference brings together researchers from the interdisciplinary field of science studies to discuss the origins, meanings and transformations of the distinction between “basic research” and “applied research” in the course of the 20th century. The aim is to compare how this key distinction of science and research policy has been handled by diverse ideological regimes of the 20th century, for example by the totalitarian regimes during World War II, by the liberal-democratic regimes of the West or by the socialist regimes of the East during the Cold War era, by decolonized states in the Commonwealth and by the recent innovation regimes of supranational entities such as the EU.

In the last decades, several authors have noticed with surprise that the basic/applied distinction and the notorious linear model of innovation persist both within science stud-ies and in science and innovation policy, although they have been deconstructed as analytically flawed. Thus, on the one hand, it is common usage to distinguish between “basic research” and “applied research” while, on the other hand, the inadequacy of the-se categories is often debated. This paradox can be solved if one analyzes the respective concepts as historical semantics. Such a change of perspective raises some central questions that will be addressed in the contributions to the conference: Which specific terms have been used in different historical and national contexts? What is the pragmatic function underlying the different forms of usage? Do these opposing notions epitomize diverging ideas or ideologies concerning the goal of science in general? What kind of careers and trajectories did these concepts have, when observing them in retrospect? For example, why did the idea of “basic research” become so important after 1945?

The conference is supported by the Rectorate of the University of Bonn, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW).

The conference fee is 50€ (reduced 25€) and includes coffee and beverages, dinner on Thursday and lunch on Friday. Please register until February 1, 2014.