Innovation and Scientific Research as a Sustainable Development Goal in Spanish Public Universities

Abstract

One of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and fostering innovation. This paper aims to analyse the possible consequences of stimulating commercial exploitation of academic research, encouraged by recent policy initiatives and legislative changes, on the quantity and quality of scientific knowledge in Spain’s public universities. We collected data of innovation variables (national patents, R&D and consultancy agreements, services rendered, licenses and PCT extensions and spin-offs), publications and number of citations for 48 Spanish public universities in 2009–2018 from Observatorio IUNE, which obtains data from the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, the Network of Research Results Transfer Offices and Web of Science. The results of linear regressions models showed that universities that render more services and have a greater number of PCTs (patent cooperation treaties), have a positive impact on the quantity and quality of the publications in Spanish universities. However, the number of national patents has no impact on the scientific output. Finally, universities with a greater number of patents have a lower number of citations.