I agree with @hm243 that research studies conducted in academia and in the industry are both important. However, I don’t believe that research studies in academia are only for the long run. I personally prefer contributing to research studies that have immediate or practical results improving our lives, curing a disease etc or research studies for the now. I believe that you can still work in academia with that purpose in mind in certain labs. For example, I was working in an academic lab at the Veteran Affairs (WRIISC). Although it was an academic lab, we were running clinical testing on a medical device that we developed. Throughout various tests, we not only tested the device but also had various important assessments that the veterans (participants) might not be able to get anywhere else and helped veterans in various ways. In that case, there was a lot of direct benefits generating from the research projects. I also believe that labs like that are present in the academic world.