Research skills in university professors must be significant in order to achieve greater integration with the functions of teaching and community outreach. In this sense, this research aims to describe the perception of teachers in relation to the importance they give to research as an integrative element. It focuses on the quantitative paradigm, being descriptive. The survey was used as data collection technique. The study was applied to three universities located in Quito; the population consisted of 299 teachers, of whom 274 answered the questionnaire. The results show that, of the twelve sub-indicators analyzed, eleven show a “moderate” level of use of research as a factor of integration with teaching and community engagement. The responses of the managers coincide with those expressed by the teachers in the sense that each substantive function works independently of the others, and only in some cases is there an overlap of the three functions. Strategic guidelines were proposed to overcome the situation.