Results of research and the role of universities

Experts argue that pressure for immediate research results should not interfere with education and training of students.

By Heitor Shimizu, in Montevideo  |  Agência FAPESP – “Universities should be keen to produce quality research and also to ensure that this research points to improvements in the sense of remedying negative aspects or deficits of the societies to which they belong,” said Judith Sutz, who chairs the Sectoral Scientific Research Committee of Uruguay’s University of the Republic (UDELAR).

According to Sutz, different challenges, difficulties and stimuli are involved in frontier research in contradistinction to science that directly addresses society’s demands, such as the need to reduce inequality, for example.

In this context, transforming the academic assessment system is “a necessity for the health of science and for its social robustness”, Sutz said in a presentation to FAPESP Week Montevideo, held on November 17-18 in the Uruguayan capital. The event was organized by FAPESP in collaboration with UDELAR and the Montevideo Group Association of Universities (AUGM).

“Research is a national and increasingly international activity, and would be inconceivable without collaboration among researchers throughout the world, so the system of incentives and academic assessment requires the establishment of at least some common criteria,” Sutz said.

Sutz suggested that universities work on the construction of an assessment system capable of meeting the current challenges. “We should work out of our homes, which are the universities of our countries, and reach out to researchers at institutions everywhere,” she said.

Another participant in the panel session on “Research at the University” was Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s Scientific Director. He said there is growing pressure worldwide for universities to produce research results increasingly oriented to short-term goals. “This overlooks the fact that generally speaking the effect of universities on society is mediated by the well-educated people who graduate from them to work in companies, government and research institutions oriented to specific objectives.”

“This pressure ends up becoming a challenge to universities’ research and education activities, and can impair what should be the focus for every good university: providing students with a good education. Universities change the world through their students, educated in an environment that exposes them to advanced research and stimulates their knowledge and curiosity,” Brito Cruz said.

“If universities don’t stimulate intellectual curiosity or educate new generations of students to the highest academic standards who are capable of transforming their countries, what use will universities be?”

Daniel López, Vice Rector for Research, Graduate Studies & Innovation at Chile’s Playa Ancha University, recalled the importance of cultural and formative values and of supporting the development of universities, which in his view should not act in isolation.

“Given the urgency of society’s needs, universities must increasingly use cooperation both to prioritize quality research via collaboration among scientists and to promote scientific culture,” he said.

Other points made by López were the need to “build public-private alliances for development via technological and social innovation”, and the importance of managing knowledge to add value, as exemplified by startup incubators.

Interactions between universities and business were highlighted by Carlos Américo Pacheco, FAPESP’s Chief Executive Officer. “A significant proportion of the information used by the private sector to innovate comes from universities. A small part of this results from contracts between firms and universities, but much derives from the knowledge produced by universities and disseminated publicly in published articles and conferences held,” Pacheco said.

“Collaboration with business creates opportunities for universities. Opportunities due to the fact that links with companies are useful to find jobs for graduates, and these links also bring up interesting issues and subjects for research that will be highly visible because it addresses concrete challenges. This can mobilize intelligence or create a special motivation for researchers in a particular field.”

Another strength of universities stressed by Pacheco was what he called “renewal of the productive fabric”. “Creation of startups is increasingly part of this renewal. Today this is more important, in countries like Brazil and the United States, than direct technology transfer in the form of licensing or commercialization of patents,” he said.

Read more about FAPESP Week Montevideo: www.fapesp.br/week2016/montevideo.