Desafíos para la vinculación entre la universidad pública y demandas de actores sociales y gubernamentales.

This paper is framed within a research project about the processes of transferring knowledge generated by the social sciences. More precisely, it is focused on the linking processes generated between the academic sector and government and civil society organizations. The sample consists of cases from research groups funded by the UBACYT program at the University of Buenos Aires between 2002 and 2007. Selection of these groups was made according to three problem areas: health, housing and education. This work presents the results of interviews that considered three main points: a) characteristics of the effectively established relations and the difficulties found; b) the characteristics of forming groups and their previous experience; c) the role played by the university as an academic institution in the transfer process. Finally, the study evidences the presence of tensions regarding the definition of objectives for knowledge production and transfer in the discourse of the research groups analyzed, and the repercussions that this has on the research and linkage strategies chosen by the researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]