The University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) has been placed in 2017 in the fourth place of all Spanish universities, and the 46th in the world in the field of Veterinary Sciences, according to the ranking of Shanghai. As stated in this prestigious classification, ARWU-2017 (Academic Ranking of World Universities), at the state level, only three universities appear ahead of the UCLM: The Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Complutense University of Madrid, and the University of Murcia. In addition, only two Spanish universities without veterinary studies, the UCLM itself and the University of Barcelona, appear in it.
The ranking of Shanghai, developed by disciplines, classifies the universities of the world based on the quality and quantity of their scientific publications. Therefore, it is a ranking in which only the research mission of the universities is valued. Thus, the UCLM stands out in the field of Veterinary Sciences thanks to the standardized impact of its publications—the highest among the Spanish universities, and the second in the world after the University of Arizona—, the number of publications of excellence, and the international collaboration in quality scientific publications.
One of the UCLM groups that have made an important contribution to this position in the area of Veterinary Sciences is the Health and Biotechnology group (SaBio), which has nine professors and staff researchers, whose activity is developed in The Hunting Resources Research Institute, (IREC, for its acronym in Spanish). Since the creation of the group between the UCLM, the CSIC (The Spanish National Research Council), and the JCCM (Regional Government of Castile-La Mancha) in 1999, the IREC and the SaBio group have placed the UCLM in the highest positions in the area of veterinary sciences worldwide. According to its principal investigator, Dr. Christian Gortázar, "the group is dedicated to contributing to health, animal production, and conservation through research and technological development."
This group presents a high level of internationalization, a high scientific productivity, and a great capacity for transfer in biotechnology, reproduction, health, and related fields. In this way, during the years 2015 and 2016, the members of the group published, respectively, 71, and 66 articles in the most prestigious JCR (Journal Citation Report), journals in the area. In addition, they actively participated in numerous national and European projects and in numerous contracts with different companies and administrations, being global references in the study of tuberculosis and in the control Vector-borne diseases. In addition, since this year 2017, SaBio leads the National Network of Excellence in Animal Spermatology, recognized and funded by the MINECO (Ministry of Economy and Finance).
Among the group's future initiatives, the promotion of new postgraduate offers stands out; greater scientific collaborations, and technology transfer with administrations and companies; new international projects; as well as continuing the development of the technology-based company Sabiotec, born from the group.
According to the researcher Christian Gortázar: "International rankings do not take into account the available budgets of universities for the classification of them." Thus, for example, the first university in the ranking of Shanghai, Harvard, has a budget of almost 20 times higher than the UCLM. In this sense, the results achieved by the UCLM in veterinary sciences deserve considerable attention, both because of the resources currently available to the academic institution in relation to other prestigious universities, and because of the low number of researchers at the regional University devoted to this discipline in comparison, for instance, with Spanish universities that have veterinary studies. Therefore, these results represent a great international recognition for our Regional University."
Office of Communications, UCLM. Albacete, November 7, 2017