Knowledge management is crucial to the sustainable competitiveness of organizations. However, knowledge management in university research centers have been targeted by a scant attention in the practices of these institutions and the literature on this subject is also limited.The objective of this study is to identify barriers and facilitators in four knowledge processes (acquisition, creation, sharing and transfer) in university research centers. An exploratory study was made being conducted twenty-one interviews to directors, principal and junior researchers in seven research centers at two universities, in Portugal. The results obtained are: a) main barriers mentioned by participants are: weak internal organizational capital; disabled mechanisms for implementing the national strategy; weak capital / relational individual; weak organizational culture results-oriented; b) main facilitators: strong external organizational capital, strong internal organizational social capital, good training practices, strong organizational culture results-oriented and adequate national strategy. In summary, the study suggests that the nature of of individual and social-organization variable are relevant to knowledge production in these organizations. The leading research centers have to take into account these critical factors. Also cannot neglect the alignment of technology with knowledge processes, since these are considered a support of the researchers. Because organizations are porous entities, it is still necessary leadership aware of contextual factors for an effective knowledge management.