At the beginning of September 2024 scientists from all around the globe gathered in Salt Lake City for the Applied Conference on Superconductivity at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Our group had the opportunity to present our recent findings in three talks with topics ranging from current distributions across grain boundaries in iron based superconducting thin films to the influence of neutron irradiation on commercial coated conductors and YBCO thin films. These findings are relevant for future applications of superconductors in magnet systems employed in fusion reactors and for the deeper understanding of the physics behind superconductivity