DARPA is a common and overused response here, but nowdays we hear more about killer drones and face recognition... but yeah, I guess the military will always create inventions that are useful for civil purposes, but I still consider that focused research.

Universities depend on governmental funding to a certain extent, but they have their own freedom - though I still can't see how the next Facebook or next Google or the next super intelligent state firewall will emerge from a research project.