The University of Valladolid has among its basic aims the development and the support to the research and the knowledge which are created in its institutes, centers, groups, and laboratories.

The research provides the fundamentals of the teaching function of the University, the mean to the economy progress and the knowledge transfer to the society. And the mission of the academic institution from its governing bodies is considered been its responsibility to motivate and help the members of the faculty and the units for innovation and transfer for developing their tasks by providing means for reaching the excellence and the effective management of the resources addressed to the research. 

In the UVa the number of professors and researchers who work in their classrooms and laboratories is around 2500, there are twelve university institutes and 180 research groups from the different branches of knowledge. Its research programs contribute to the progress and the technologic and experimental development, the innovation applied to the productive system, to the people´s security and health and to the improvement of the quality of life of the citizens.

The Vice-chancellor Office for Research, Innovation and Transfer is the body in charge of designing the guidelines which make easy the work of all the agents involved in the scientific progress, as well as the fellowships, grants, and aids promotion from the doctorate studies, the formalization of specific agreement with companies and institutions and without forgetting the agreements with people in charge of research projects. Under the wings of the Vice-chancellor Office for Research, Innovation and Transfer is also the governance of university institutes, recognized research groups, the University Library, the Publications Service and other support units to the research work such as the Instrumental Techniques Laboratory or the Animal Wellness Service.

Under its control, it is also the University General Foundation (FUNGE) and the UVa scientific park, two important tools which help to manage the knowledge transfer, the innovation, the entrepreneurship, and the promotion. Both foundations, along with the Research Support Service, compose a valued team of human resources and materials which gives support to one of the activities about which is backed up the mission of the University of Valladolid.

The young doctoral candidates, who are today making their theses, will be the researchers who lead the new groups and the future projects. In this context, it was created from the Vice-chancellor Office for Research the Doctoral School University of Valladolid (EsDUVa), which is in charge of the organization of 29 doctoral programs of the University and 7 research masters assigned to the University; as well as the management of own activities from the doctoral program, the guarantee of a bigger impulse of all the programs and the offer to the research trainee an adequate environment for the development of its research activity, as well as a cross-disciplinary approach and a greater support to the mobility and internalization. The EsDUVa, with headquarters in La Casa del Estudianteaims to become an attractive center for the talent, where the research careers are promoted.

From the 29 doctoral programs, twelve are interuniversity programs and five of them are coordinated by the UVa. Approximately 1500 students are enrolled in some of these programs, of whom approximately 270 are foreigners.

The Doctoral School motivates the continuous improvement in the doctoral training, and along with the Doctorate Committee of the UVa, ensures the quality of the doctoral dissertations. Additionally, it takes part in the evaluation of the financing of the international mobility for doctoral candidates and professors and promotes the international cooperation along with Doctoral schools in the universities of Burgos and Léon within the frame of the Triangular E3 International Excellence Campus Horizons of Mankind.

The UVa provides grants and scholarships in the field of research charged to the budget of the Vice-chancellor Office for Research, Innovation, and Transfer, which aim to promote the training and the mobility of the pre-doctoral fellows.

Moreover, the university provides cooperation grants in research projects, whose aim is to provide initial research training to university graduates who meets the access requirements to the doctoral studies and to university students from the last year of degree, through their involvement or cooperation in research programs or projects, development and innovation, managed by the UVa and financed by public and private entities.

The Vice-chancellor office is also in charge of the University Library (BUVa). The Library of the University of Valladolid is an essential and active part of the university system to which it gives support by offering a wide variety of spaces, services, and bibliographic resources and information which, developed in active, dynamic environment and with a great presence of information and communication technologies, provides the adequate means for the learning development, the study, the research and the new teaching practices in the field of superior education in our university, as well as in the society in which it is involved.

At the end of the year 2017, the BUVa was awarded with the 500+ EFQM excellence seal with the national and international recognition. One of the keys to this seal, granted for its corroborated quality in its management; it has been its work system, in which the coordination and the unity prevail in the provision of services. The Library of the University of Valladolid has 14 library loan services, 3 are in the provinces of Palencia, Soria and Segovia, the other are located in Valladolid: 8 specialized libraries of Area or Campus and 3 Central Libraries (BG Reina Sofía, Santa Cruz Historical Library and the European Documentation Center [EDC]).

The BUVa collection is accessible through the Almena and the Almena Plus catalogue and the UVaDoc Repository, including more than 1 million books among them we have to underline its valued ancient collection of 45000 documents. We could also find many incunabula and manuscripts written from the 10th century, more than 17000 printed periodic publications, from which 2500 continue being received by subscription, almost 22000 electronic journals titles, 16100 electronic books, 34 databases and approximately 45000 titles (Theses, senior theses, and Master´s theses).

Its commitments and courses of action with the research are especially addressed to give visibility to the scientific production of the UVa, through the institutional repository, as well as through the Library Service with the Research (accreditation and six-year terms, writing and publications, quick guides, training, etc.). The BUVa is cooperating with the Doctoral School in the candidate doctorates training, as well as in the inclusion of the doctoral dissertations and the scientific doctoral candidates’ production in UVaDoc. The BUVa is also taking part in structural projects of the UVa with the Research Assistance Service (SIGMA Research Project, accreditation and researchers´ excellence of the UVa, books for open display through UVaDoc, etc.).