University Social Responsibility (USR) is presented as one ofthe main challenges for higher learning (UNESCO- 2009), which proposes an axis of “social management of knowledge” that leads to a research model, based on interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, including the integration of external social actors, the dissemination and transfer of socially useful knowledge toward disadvantaged publics, as well as the promotion of research applied to development issues. The Universidad de Panama has an array of educational policies; among them are the ones of research and social responsibility.

This study seeks to inquire about the research activity carried out by the Universidad de Panama Institutes and its correspondence with the concepts and approaches of USR theory in order to check how it is performed, which are its main obstacles and what aspects could be enhanced to refocus them toward a USR scheme, which secure the “social management of knowledge”. It has been concluded that the development proposal of the research policy, to this date, has favored scenarios that could facilitate the harmonization with a USR policy. This research uses a multi-methodical approach, responding with it to the field of the political sphere.