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Research at Universidad de Antioquia is a relatively recent activity dating back to around 1960 when some professors came back to the country holding graduate degrees, mainly in the field of health. By 1980, with several research groups already working, the university’s first research policies started to take shape, leading to the establishment of the University Research System (abbreviates SUI in Spanish), as recorded in the Board of Trustees Ordinance 153 of 1990.

The research activities carried out during the 1990s under this system underwent an evaluation process that resulted in an important reform formalized by the Board of Trustees Ordinance 204 of 2001, currently in force.

Today, the university is organized in such a way that every research group is assigned to its corresponding faculty, school, or institute. Each of these units has a research center in charge of supporting its researchers in the administrative processes when they apply for grants to finance their projects.

These research centers administer the financial resources, purchase materials and equipment, hire staff, modify the budget items as requested, and monitor the commitment to projects. In addition, each center has a technical committee consisting of the dean or director of the academic unit, the head of the center, and a representative of the research groups of each unit. 

For administrative purposes and research policies, the university created the Research Development Committee (abbreviated CODI in Spanish), which is integrated by representatives of the university administrative staff and members of the research community. 

The CODI proposes and analyzes the research policies and then the University Senate discusses them and refers them to the Board of Trustees for approval. Moreover, the CODI advises the institution with everything concerning research, encourages the research activity through annual calls, integrates research into teaching and outreach activities, administers the financial resources for research, and supports the spreading and publication of the research studies. The Vice Rectorate for Research is in charge of the technical secretariat of the CODI.

The university provides financial support for research allocating annual resources for that purpose. These resources are invested in calls by fields (medical and health sciences; engineering and technology; natural and exact sciences; and social sciences, humanities, and arts). Likewise, the university has funds to help finance activities related to research projects: national and international tickets, events, first project, internationalization, specialized journals, translations, and undergraduate projects.