According to the Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT for its acronym in Spanish) there are currently 59 higher education institutions and polytechnic schools in the country that conduct research that benefit society.

Universidad Politecnica Salesiana (UPS) is one of the universities that conducts the most research. In 2015, the university's research department implemented a new research model which prioritizes the development of people, the production of knowledge and the creation of a research culture for students, professors and even the administrative staff. This model is carried out through communities and spaces that encourage people's skills, it's a university – ecosystem. 

Currently, the university's Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem has had positive results in research and scientific production: there are 73 research groups made up of about 406 professors and 1068 students who have worked on 861 research projects to benefit society and about 1526 papers indexed to the most important data bases in the world. The university's entrepreneurs have developed 126 projects and 22 startups to benefit the environmental, technological and social sectors.

The university has worked along with other 148 institutions from 28 countries (China, Korea, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Colombia, and others) that are related to the ecosystem. In 2018, 322 researchers from our university visited different countries to present their research.  

UPS is the only Ecuadorian university with 6 high impact journals and the only university with coworking offices for the joint work of researchers and entrepreneurs. 

In the last few years, research and entrepreneurship of UPS has been recognized nationally and internationally; the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology evaluated publications to determine which ones have had the highest impact, the most important publications were the ones written by the Industrial Technologies Research and Development Group in our university's branch campus in Cuenca. Another example is a recognition of the most innovative patent of the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, in France, created by professor Fernando Urgiles for his doctoral thesis. 

The university's research model has also turned into a benchmark of higher education research management in other countries. Last year it was recognized as the best doctoral research project in Universidad de Ferrara, Italy which was written by Juan Pablo Salgado, Head of Research at UPS. Last month, Juan Pablo was invited to present the model in the most important research Congress in Europe, NETVAL 2019.

The growth of this ecosystem is the result of joint work by professors and students who seek to develop and change people´s lives through research. 

Some new reports of the research conducted at UPS:

Crecimiento de la Investigación en Instituciones de Educación Superior del Ecuador - Diario El Universo

Excelencia Universitaria - Dirario El Universo

Excelencia Universitaria - Diario El Universo