This kind of research is a bit further down the chain in the sense that it addresses how to actually use functional programming in the real world to solve pract

This kind of research is a bit further down the chain in the sense that it addresses how to actually use functional programming in the real world to solve practical problems. But it is not less important and at that level it really is the cutting edge. One very big mistake we have made over the last years in Academia is to only value "new" ideas rather than revisiting old ones. To a certain extent we are blind to research and work that came before.