University research in the global environment, the challenges of the science & technology policies in Latin America, 1990–2007

The main aim of this research is to analyze how research activities have been modified in Latin American Universities, considering foreign pressures of the globalization besides science and technology policies implemented in Latin American; thus, we try to identify the strategies and advances reached by universities in relation to this policies. It is necessary to know that in Latin America the main institutions in research are the universities. In this paper, we present a first advance of our research project and some preliminary conclusions; universities have capacities to carry out both applied and basic research; in fact, these are the main institutions about these issues. Universities, in Latin America, have strengthened their research capacities in the last decades in spite of the fact that science and technology policies are addressed to innovation and R&D, in a commercial way.