UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
The research developed in the university fulfills high quality standards and is in improving each year. This is borne out by the number of articles and books published by our faculty in their disciplines worldwide. An example of this is the fact that between 1990 and 2004 Uruguay quadrupled the number of scientific articles registered in the Science Citation Index. This index cites articles with certain characteristics published in journals of international distribution in a broad range of disciplines, mainly in the scientific and technological fields. Approximately 10% of the total of these publications for 2004 come from the Clemente Estable Institute for Biological Research, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The vast majority of the rest were written by faculty of the University of the Republic.
Diverse data points to the fact that the UR accounts for no less than two-thirds of the scientific and technological research being done in the country. For example:
- In the most recent convocation (2004) of the National Foundation for Researchers, that includes investigators from all areas of knowledge, 85% of those proposed and financed were from the UR. Sixty-four percent of those financed were UR’s full time faculty.
- Some 500 researchers take part in the Program of Development of Basic Sciences (PEDECIBA), of whom 70% work at the UR. In 2006, more than 400 students were taking their masters and doctoral degrees at PEDECIBA; the great majority studied in the various university departments.
- In the five years from 2002 through 2006, 75% of all projects approved in the various programs of the national funded Technological Development Program were headed by investigators from the University of the Republic.
- In the 2005 call for proposals of the “Young Investigators in Business” program, 77% of all financed grants were presented by young researchers working at UR.
