The research and scientific production of Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales U.D.C.A was analyzed based on the intellectual capital approach, global academic rankings, research, and scientific production in the last 40 years. The Scimago Graphica tool and the VOSviewer software were used for the bibliometric and content analysis of the scientific publications available in the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis showed that there are 534 scientific documents in the Scopus database, with at least one author affiliated with U.D.C.A. Of these, 84 % can be found in SciELO and 56 % on Publindex. Most documents (70 %) are in English, and 27 % are in Spanish. The citations of 7 articles account for 64.4 % (37,147) of the total citations. Authors with affiliation U.D.C.A have collaborated with researchers from 72 countries. Based on intellectual capital and scientific production, U.D.C.A is currently in model 2.0 and is transitioning towards model 3.0, drawn by three areas: Medicine, Environmental Sciences, and Veterinary. These areas have focused on inter-institutional cooperation, internationalization, regionalization, and globalization. However, they must incorporate business development, digital technologies, virtual learning, knowledge capitalization, and entrepreneurship. The other areas of knowledge need to reconsider the type and scope of research they develop to be relevant to the academic community and society.