Research is one of the three fundamental pillars, together with teaching and extension, that support the entire structure in which the university is built worldwide.
In Colombia, this statement contrasts with the real interest and the budget set for it, and leads us to think that there is a feeling of economic and financial impotence for the rectors to propose and achieve what they want in this field.
We are entering the new millennium and the Colombian university has entered "lame" because teaching and extension have grown and are being exhausted by not developing together with the advance of research. But this must be a research that innovates, is creative and is based on prospects and intelligence and not only on applied research or consulting, because these are based on that and not vice versa as is currently applied in almost all educational institutions in the country.
We know our shortcomings: the need to bring the scientific, technological and productive sectors closer together; little knowledge and little awareness of the importance of the research topic among decision-makers in organizations; the insufficient number of researchers in the different training areas and disciplines; the limited level of institutionalization of science in Colombia; weakness in innovation capacity; the partial and, at times, distorted perception of what science is and the role it plays in society and in the country's development; the little public understanding of the impact of science in the daily life of every human being and of the role it can play in the well-being of the population; the lack of critical rigor; the weakness and dispersion of the scientific community; the academic separation between teaching-research-extension; and there will surely be others, such as, for example, little social projection or lack of internationalization.
But just as we know our shortcomings, we also know (or should know) that we have to be really prepared to face the times that are approaching, because the future of our civilization will be decided based on the competitiveness for invention, which will decide, to at the same time, the ability to bring the resulting products and processes to the market, to link the industry with academia and civil society, and to link education, in all its aspects, to economic and social development.
It is essential to remember that 22 years ago, the year 1988 was declared the Year of Science in Colombia and the most important Science and Technology Mission carried out to date was carried out. Since then, scientific policy in the context of national public policies has acquired importance and in all scenarios it is agreed that the Colombian university must appropriate the most advanced proposals that were made there, in terms of research, to develop and implement them. in practice. But currently they are raised only in theory in the series of books produced that Libraries have.
Law 29 of 1990, which institutionalizes the National Science and Technology System, its regulatory decrees, the regulations associated with the development of science and technology and the 1991 Constitution provide a new vision of the scientific and technological work that the country must advance, and they propose strategies to develop research capacities, the incorporation of science and technology into Colombian culture, the training of human resources to consolidate scientific communities, the internationalization of scientific activity and the generation of systems of information in science and technology.
Therefore, universities must contribute to making the mandates of research policy a reality, strengthening their potential scientific development to achieve great changes and effects on the construction of knowledge and turn research activity into a subject of permanent discussion. It cannot be ignored that at present the subject of research has become an active part of all human endeavor and has gained great importance due to the effects it has on the exercise and development of science and on the contribution to the role of the researcher in social and educational affairs.
The Colombian university must participate actively in the research and scientific process of the country and for this it must undertake the design of an investigation that is in line with social, political and economic development and that the specific problems that emerge from that same development can be identified.
The scientific responsibility of the Colombian university must begin with relevant research in the fields of knowledge offered by each of them and, at the same time, train researchers to accumulate knowledge and experience in handling problems and instruments and in the logic of the production of scientific facts.
In this problem, it must be noted that business activity has much to teach the university and it must also be recognized that the university has to begin to contribute to companies, society and humanity.
It is known by scholars and researchers that it is impossible to carry out applied research without a high component of basic research, and equally, because one of the characteristics of current research, in the world, is the speed with which discoveries in the field Scientists find application in the most diverse fields of industry and the promotion of human well-being.
We also know that the criteria to rate the quality and trajectory of the research are given by the evaluation of the peers in the number and quality of the articles published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as those of research monographs, review papers and book chapters, the impact factor in the journals in which it publishes, the number of citations of the works by other authors, the external budget received, the number and significance of the invitations to present lectures at international congresses, the journals in which it is part of the editorial or arbitration body, the acknowledgments received in the national and international environment, the development and transfer of technology for the productive sector and the capacity of researchers to train human resources,among many other aspects that will surely be incorporated.
It is therefore a task that the Colombian university, as a whole, must begin immediately.
