# Abstract

This paper investigates research capacities in universities in developing countries, such as Colombia. This paper reviews some notions proposed in the literature on human resources and capabilities, the measurement and evaluation of R&D in the university environment, and the life course approach to address the study of academic and professional trajectories of researchers' careers. Some topics included in the literature review explore the actors involved in university research and their forms of organization, where human resources training, the promotion of R&D activities, and the processes of scientific knowledge production converge as elements that allow exploring the configuration of capacities for the development of this mission in the university environment.
In an attempt to understand some aspects involved in the behavior of university research, a methodological approach is proposed, based on the quantitative representation of the educational and professional dimensions of the trajectory of professors recognized as researchers, from indicators that account for their links and their achievements expressed in knowledge products, in recent years. To identify the contribution of researchers to the generation of scientific knowledge, as a proxy of the SNCTI capacities, from a longitudinal and relational perspective, which complements the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of R&D activities used in the Colombian environment.
The R&D activities performed in the Colombian academic environment are situated between the interactions between the science, technology, and innovation and higher education systems. The empirical evidence shows that the capacity of universities to generate knowledge responds to logics of instability and change, linked to the performance of researchers throughout their professional careers and to the conditions of the institutional environment for R&D.
By representing the links and attributes of researchers to universities, the structure and character of the National System of Science, Technology, and Innovation of the academic nature are ed. The individual perspective could be useful to understand the dynamics of the system as a whole and the organizations involved, complementing the current evaluation processes. In this way, providing feedback for the design of policies and strategies by those responsible for the development is oriented to favor the management of the research mission in universities, and the evaluation of the performance of researchers.
## Keywords:
Research capabilities, researchers, trajectories, Research and Development (R&D), Universities, Human Resources in Science and Technology (HR S&T), Longitudinal analysis, Network analysis, Higher education in Colombia, scientific knowledge.

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