How do physical theories confront reality? This is the central question I want to tackle in my research. To this end I will study issues related to theory-structure (the notion of a physical model will be my main focus) and to the nature of experimental practice (here I will concentrate on the distinction between data and phenomena). Two complementary aspects of the relation theory-experiment will be considered: on the one hand formal questions (what does it mean for a theory to be empirically adequate? when is an experiment a good test for a theory? which kind of explanations must a theory offer for experimental results?…), on the other hand questions having to do with the dynamics of scientific practice (in which way do experimentally established phenomena play a role in the development of new applications of theories? how are experiments to investigate theoretically predicted phenomena set up?…). Of course, it can be expected that both aspects cannot be fully understood independently.