Research and Services

The essential aim of the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento is to develop research and offer services to the community. Research, teaching and services are the backbone of the UNGS’ activities; the UNGS is positioned with these particular characteristics among Argentinean universities.

Research

Research at the UNGS

The academic staff of the University is integrated by researchers-teachers, because the objective is that every teacher carries out research and that this research be organised by the academic activity.

Presently the UNGS has more than one hundred and fifty researchers-teachers, two thirds of whom are fully dedicated, and the rest semi dedicated. They reached their position through public and open competition. Approximately a third are located in the highest categories (Professor and Associates), another third in the intermediate category (Assistance) and the remainder are Auxiliaries.

As is usual in other universities, research aims to produce and spread knowledge, but the UNGS adds to this the expressed intention to do applied research, related to the necessities, problems and challenges that emerge from the interaction with their social direct reference, the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires, and also at national level. This requires an opening of the University to the outside and the permanent and active relation with diverse organisations, associations and groups interested in the subject.

Another principle that guides the research at the UNGS is the necessity of interdisciplinary work, so that the institute’s research is based more on themes than disciplines. Each institute also develop teaching, researching and servicing activities. Scientific research, organised in areas and lines of researching, is done through four institutes: Science (ICI), Metropolitan Area Studies (ICO), Human Development (IDH) and Industry (IdeI).

Research in the institutes

In the Institute of Science the core disciplines of the area of exact, natural, social and human science are gathered, and develop research projects on the following themes:

• Complex systems in science;
• Neuroscience information technology;
• Development of Labs for experimental physics;
• Chemistry of new materials;
• Environmental Chemistry;
• Functional analysis;
• Applied mathematics;
• New socio-political problems of the transition in Argentina;
• State, market and social players in contemporary Argentina;
• Problems and methods of cultural history;
• State formation in Argentina in the century 19th;
• Epistemological problems and logical contemporary problems;
• Subject and subjectivity in contemporary philosophy;
• Philosophy of history and history of philosophy.

The Institute of Metropolitan Area Studies is dedicated to the concentration of human settlement, mainly local and regional level, although without paying attention to the national and international dimension, developing these kinds of issues:

• Social politics;
• State, government and public administration;
• Economic urban systems;
• Urban ecology;
• Urbanism

The Institute of Human Development aims to supply research about the integral development of a person, exploring the following issues:

• Politics:
• Culture, cultures;
• Education;
• Economics and its teaching;
• Philosophy and its teaching:
• History and its teaching;
• Physics and its teaching:
• Mathematics and its teaching;
• Communication process, communication policies and media;
• Language science and its teaching.

Simultaneously, the Institute of Industrial is dedicated especially to developing production themes in general and especially those, which are generated by small and medium companies, through projects with emphasis in these areas:

• Learning process and competency development of those involved;
• Institutional systems and competitive dimensions;
• Emergence and development of new entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship;
• Analysis, design and implementation of complex organisational systems;
• Technological dimensions of competitiveness;
• Political economy of underdevelopment – contexts, actors and policies;
• Mecatronics automation and applications in manufacture areas;
• Manufacture of integrated systems.

Organisation of research

Research is defined and organised in research projects, presently more than 110 projects are being developed, of which more than 30 research projects with external financing coming from diverse national and international organisations.

Training of human resources for research is developed in the UNGS through adding students in working teams and through the Teaching and Research Scholarship Program for Advanced and Recently Graduated Students as well, who fulfil their assignments in the different institutes. These scholarships take part every year.

The interest in local and regional problems has made the UNGS develop research activities related to other universities and research centres throughout the country and overseas where the same theme is studied. Also, the University organises and regularly goes to national and international scientific meetings, it is part of several academic networks and it is included frequently in international projects, such as ones in the European Alfa Network. Through this and other contacts, the University receives foreign researchers who are integrated into research projects.

On top of interacting with the beneficiaries -when it is applied research and community services- research results are shown through all kinds of publications: books edited by the University through its Publication Department, co-editions with commercial editors, chapters in books which are produced in other areas, articles in national and foreign scientific magazines, conferences and meeting minutes and journals.

UNGS, along with its main objective to generate and spread high quality scientific research, looks to this to fit in with the local, regional and national community, through lending specific services.

Who interacts with the UNGS in research and services

• Official Organisations
  National Chamber of Deputies
  National Chamber of Senators
  Chamber of Deputies of the Province of Buenos Aires
  National Centre of Community Organisations (CENOC)
  Federal Investment Council(CFI)
  Ministry of Education, Province of Buenos Aires - Best Secondary Level Graduates Programme of the Province of Buenos Aires(PROMESBA)
  Buenos Aires Management Development Institute (IDEB)
  Provincial Co-operative Action Institute (IPAC)
  National Ministry of Education, Science and Technology - Secretariat for Science, Technology and Productive innovation
  National Ministry of Education, Science and Technology- Secretariat for University Policies
  National Ministry of Social Development – Social Capital Fund (FONCAP)
  National Ministry of Social Development- Social Investment Participative Fund (FOPAR)
  Ministry of Production of the Province of Buenos Aires
  Ministry of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires
  National Ministry of Labour and Social Security – Employment Secretariat, Professional Training Office
  Ibero-american Programme for Science and Technology Development (CYTED)
  Mother-child Nutrition Programme(PROMIN)
  Ibero-american Co-operation Secretariat(SECIB)
  Labour Risks Superintendent(SRT)

• Municipal Governments
  Avellaneda
  Hurlingham
  Ituzaingó
  José C. Paz
  La Matanza
  Malvinas Argentinas
  Moreno
  Pilar
  San Antonio de Areco
  San Fernando
  San Miguel
  Tigre

• International Organisations
  Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA)
  Interamerican Development Bank(IDB)
  Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
  FUNDES Internacional para América Latina
  International Labour Organisation(ILO)
  PROCISUR-Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación Agrícola
  Sistema de Evaluación y Monitoreo de Programas Sociales (SIEMPRO)
  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
  United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

• Companies
  Cerámica Juan Stefani SACFI
  Repsol-YPF, Regional South Division

• International NGOs
  Acción Contra el Hambre (ACH)
  Asociación Para Apoyo a Comunidades (APAC)
  Canadian Children Care Federation (CCCF)
  Encuentro de Cooperación Diáspora Argentina (ECODAR)

• Community groups and NGOs
  Fundación para el Desarrollo y la Promoción de las Redes Sociales (FUNDARED)
  Mesa Multisectorial de la Mujer Red “El Encuentro”
  Caritas Merlo-Moreno

• Unions, professional associations and bodies
  Chamber of Commerce ofGeneral Sarmiento
  Municipal TradeUnions of San Miguel, Malvinas Argentinas and José C. Paz
  Education Workers Trade Union of the Province ofBuenos Aires (SUTEBA)
  Personnel Association of Siemens Argentina (APSA)

• Universities
  Universidad de San Andrés
  Universidad Nacional de Jujuy
  Universidad Nacional de La Patagonia Austral
  Universidad Nacional de Luján
  Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
  Universidad Nacional de Rosario
  Universidad Nacional de San Luis
  Universidad Nacional de San Martín
  Universidad Nacional del Centro de Buenos Aires
  Universidad Nacional del Comahue
  Universidad Nacional del Nordeste
  Universidad Tecnológica Nacional - Regional Pacheco 
  York University (Canada)
  Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
  Université du Québec à Rimouski (Canada)
  Universidad de la República (Uruguay)
  Universidad Católica del Uruguay
  Universidad de Brasilia (Brazil)
  Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil)
  Universidade de San Pablo (Brazil)

Services

Services are understood as a creative communication and interaction between the University and society and as result integration with research and training activities are achieved.

Tertiary services

The content and mode of the services provided by the UNGS are a consequence of its particular way of knowledge production through the link between research, teaching and services. In the lending of a service it reiterates the relationship of the knowledge production process with social needs, making possible the knowledge interaction generated and the participants trained in these processes (researchers-teachers, graduates, degree and post degree students) with the social needs that are manifested as demands. So, the services have a dual functionality: giving solutions to emerging social problems and nourishing the production of knowledge process.

This perspective constitutes one of the basic definitions of the institutional policy of the UNGS, as a mechanism to participate in the events and changes that operate in the society, this idea directs actions with the community related with the institute’s and centre’s activities. The institutional environment where these activities are developed is the Community Services Centre.

The University encourages the cooperation between research and services, training and services, or between the three activities, particularly related to its region of influence and emphasising: educational system in all its forms and levels (initial, primary and secondary education and tertiary non university education), as well as the continual training; production sectors; local government and civil society organisations; the promotion of the cultural development.

Social demands can be originated in this interaction of the university and the environment as a continuation of their lines of work and also comes from agents or social sectors who want to pay and also those who can pay. In the first case it is not essential to contribute with economic resources to be able to access the services, although, in order for an efficient administration, it is convenient to find a way of financing the services. So, according to the motivation or initial reason, two kinds of services are distinguished: free services to the community and paid services (companies, states, organisations, etceteras).

Services

The different types of services respond to creating communication and interaction between the UNGS and the society include some of the following activities: assessing; technical assistance; diagnoses; management process production; training; evaluations; research. Thus, diverse activities are developed:

• Technical Assistance, updating and training for specific productive, science and culture sectors;
• Training of technical and professional staff;
• Diagnosing or showing the state of specific problems in sectors and areas;
• Basic or applied research orientated to obtain specific results;
• Development proposals, which use the application of conventional techniques to resolve problems and to contribute to the strengthening of science and technology;
• Consultancy services, auditing and external assessment;
• Technological innovation activities, which contribute to the social and economical development of the region.