A lot of academic research is no longer fundamental and is essentially r&D, note the big D. Funding sources such as the EU commission are mostly interested in f

A lot of academic research is no longer fundamental and is essentially r&D, note the big D. Funding sources such as the EU commission are mostly interested in funding what will have near term economic impact. So you've got entire research institutions who have nicely kitted out clean rooms and all kinds of cool toys doing just enough on each project to keep the funding coming in. As a result negative results will piss off project coordinators so who want the next big thing they've been promised and research has just become complex assembly projects between collaborators where researchers repeat what they know works.