Universidad Tecnológica del Uruguay
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

II.1) Determination of the total number of employees conducting research

In May 2023, the Research and Development Directorate launched the first survey of researchers at the Technological University (UTEC). The goal was to gain a deep understanding of the university's faculty members involved in or initiating research activities and to establish an institutional Registry of Researchers.

A Google Form was created, and the UTEC faculty community was invited to complete it. Faculty members were asked to include a link to their CVuy or, alternatively, to attach an updated curriculum vitae. The form included the following questions:

1. Do you belong to the National System of Researchers?
2. Highest level of education completed (Master's, PhD, other)
3. Current education (Master's, PhD, other)
4. Interest in further education in the short or medium term (Yes, at the Master's level; Yes, at the PhD level; Yes, at the postdoctoral level; It is not in my plans for the short or medium term)
5. Are you able to act as a thesis supervisor for national or international postgraduate degrees? (Yes; No)
6. If the answer to the previous question was affirmative, please indicate the postgraduate programs where you can act as a tutor
7. Questions or comments

In total, 118 valid responses were received.

The strategy implemented allowed for gathering a wide range of information with the least number of questions possible, relying on the analysis of the Curriculum Vitae content and UTEC's administrative records (HR and research projects registered in Odoo) for additional information. In some cases, information from online repositories was also used to complement and verify the data collected in the form (for example, CVUy updates, SNI membership, and scientific publications).

Based on the input from the respondents and the complementary information, a categorization of respondents was made. This categorization aimed to determine who could be classified as Researchers and who were still in the process of consolidating their activities to reach this category, thus considered Candidates for Researchers. With that notion, four categories were established to classify faculty members regarding their research activities at UTEC: UTEC Researcher, UTEC Associate Researcher, Upcoming Research Candidate, and Early-stage Research Candidate. The category used to report the data as "Total number of employees conducting research" was the following:

UTEC Researcher:

A person is considered a UTEC researcher if:

1. Their professional activities include work aimed at producing original knowledge or developing new applications based on existing knowledge. This activity must be: systematic, creative, novel, and unpredictable; sustained over time; and transferable or reproducible.
2. They hold a faculty position at UTEC.
3. They have at least one publication in peer-reviewed journals.
4. They have participated in at least one research project involving activities at UTEC in the last two years.

II.2) Determination of the total number of employees and departments conducting research in sustainability

To identify UTEC researchers involved in sustainability-related topics, the criterion used was their membership in one of the university's Strategic Research Groups (GIEs). These groups aim to contribute to productive intensification with sustainability in the following ways:

• Focus on preserving natural resources: research the interaction of production chains and develop solutions to prevent and mitigate impacts on resources.
• Identify priority systems (due to their economic and social relevance, involving more than one production chain) and achieve greater collaboration with state institutions (generation of public goods).
• Develop Intelligent Management Systems and identify and validate technological solutions to preserve both the quantity and quality of resources.

UTEC has identified two major interconnected topics that align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals: Natural Resources (Air, Water, and Soil) and Food. At the time of this report's preparation, UTEC has the following GIEs:

• GIE for Sustainable Water and Soil Management
• GIE for Sustainable Agro-Food Production

It is important to note that GIEs are mission-driven, interdisciplinary research groups focusing on production chains. They include over 30 researchers from diverse fields, such as food analysis, automation, water resources, environmental monitoring, robotics, logistics, renewable energy, among others. These groups are formed around a strategic national challenge with a territorial perspective. Strategic challenges are those that significantly impact regional economic and social development and require inter-institutional collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach.

Based on the list of researchers working on sustainability, as defined by the above criterion, their affiliation with UTEC Academic Departments was identified. This provided the number of departments involved in sustainability research.

II.3) List of sustainability research projects

To define the list of sustainability research projects from the past three years, projects uploaded to the "Project Requests and Service Sales" module of the Odoo platform were considered. Among them, those that are either ongoing or completed and whose themes are associated with the GIEs were selected.

II.4) Review and/or validation process of the research inventory

To validate the information included in UTEC's research inventory, it will be cross-referenced with data available from the following sources:

• Online CVUy system
• Website of the National System of Researchers of Uruguay (SNI)
• "Project Requests and Service Sales" module of the Odoo platform
• "Human Capital" module of the Odoo platform
• Excel spreadsheets prepared by the Research and Development Directorate for monitoring GIE-related and other projects.