This paper goes through the different ways in which research is present in university activity, in order to show it as an essential and defining feature of present-day university identity. In addition, it highlights research as a function which is characteristic of university teachers and contributes to the achievement of institutional goals, to the enhancement of superior knowledge, to the academic and professional development of teachers and students and to the responses that society demands. Other topics such as the articulation between teaching and research are discussed in order to justify the need for and convenience of the latter. Likewise, multiple alternatives to achieve it are discussed and formative education, understood as a pedagogical strategy for curriculum development, is highlighted. Finally, it is proposed that research monographs are prepared, as the most adequate way of making formative research processes operative.