University for development in Uruguay: building academic capacity in response to local and national needs

Abstract

The pandemic generated by COVID-19 has exposed and reinforced more starkly the existing inequalities between central and peripheral countries. It has also highlighted the relevance of the knowledge production capacities accumulated in these countries, and their fundamental role in facing the crisis. In Latin America there are no productive sectors that are strong demanders of research and local knowledge. It is in public universities where these capacities are concentrated and where processes have been put in place to respond to the challenges of sustainable human development. In Uruguay, the University of the Republic (UdelaR) promoted a series of transformative policies between 2007 and 2014, in order to bring the institution closer to the new times of Higher Education (HE), under a concept of "University for development". One of the lines of this university reform was that of territorial expansion towards the interior of the country, based on: i) new institutions in different regions (CENURs); ii) Tertiary Education Programs (PRET) that took into account local socio-productive needs and diversities and; iii) University Development Poles (PDU), understood as highly dedicated teaching groups to develop undergraduate and graduate teaching, research and extension around thematic axes relevant and pertinent to each region. It is understood that the PDU groups were the tool that allowed the grounding of the policy to create critical mass, to make viable the social demand of specific territories, as well as to introduce institutional changes at various levels. This paper attempts to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of capacity building, with emphasis on the academic production of these groups, their agendas and the link between these and the context, through the trajectory of the Virology pole that was installed at the Salto campus of the University of the Republic. It also seeks to use this case study to contribute to the reflection on the "University for Development". Ten years after its creation, with a scientific-technological network established in the territory, this academic group has shown its relevance both in relation to the generation and innovative use of original knowledge in the context of the pandemic caused by COVID-19