Basic Research

Some concepts are more easily explained by contrasting them with their opposites, and that is certainly the case with basic research, which is most commonly contrasted with applied research.

Both these terms speak to the immediate motivation of the researcher rather than to any necessary outcome of one's research. Basic research is undertaken for its own sake—to advance knowledge, to develop theory, to solve an interesting theoretical puzzle, or to address a curiosity of the researcher—without any immediate concern for whether doing so will produce anything useful or practical or generalizable. Applied research, in contrast, specifically aims to do something practical ...