the research we do is basic (fundamental) science. This means it produces knowledge, in my case the understanding of particles, forces between particles etc.

The goal is not to have applications beyond that, but of course it does happen by accident, a very good example is the world wide web which was designed so particle physicists could share their results more efficiently. Of course it is much more difficult to say if the specific discovery of the Higgs particle will have further consequences for humanity. But looking at history, the work that was done for electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and relativity also took many tens of years before applications were even thought of. In the long run, most if not all modern physics discoveries eventually payed off. And of course the knowledge and understanding is amazing too, humans are curious so it is in our nature to try to answer questions as fundamental as what we do at CERN :)