> Most academic work is shared only with a particular scientific community, rather than policymakers or businesses... The university where I am currently doing

> Most academic work is shared only with a particular scientific community, rather than policymakers or businesses... The university where I am currently doing my PhD has a very heavy focus on the outputs of a PhD contributing something worthwhile not only to academia but also to industry or the world. It isn't a massively high ranking university but it does force academics to think practically as well as theoretically. We are required to have an industry (non-academic) advisor on our supervisory panel who helps guide the research so it can be useful and not just gather dust once finished.