The Nursing Research Fund was created to answer several concerns raised by nursing organizations and others representing nursing interests. The Canadian Nurses Association and other major nursing voices lobbied the federal government extensively for funding to develop nursing researchers and to support research on nursing recruitment, retention, management and the issues emerging from health-system restructuring.
The Foundation provides an average of $2.5 million for nursing research funding each year. Combined with co-sponsor contributions, these funds are an extra source of money for the nursing research projects that are submitted to the Foundation's ongoing research competitions and other initiatives (like the CHSRF/CIHR Chair Awards).
The fund supports the Foundation's mandate by assisting the production of research with health-system decision makers in mind, not clinicians, thereby excluding nursing care research (although some of the funds are used to form partnerships with other organizations which fund nursing care research.) Clinical nursing research is funded through the Nursing Care Partnership Fund, and administered by the Canadian Nurses Foundation. The Foundation contributes $500,000 annually to this fund.
Training and personnel support are also major activities supported by the fund through our CHSRF/CIHR Chair Awards, Regional Training Centres, Career Reorientation Awards, Postdoctoral Awards, Partnerships and Joint Training Awards.
The average annual expenditure of the nursing research fund gives:
- $500,000 to funding projects and programs ($200,000 to CIHR's Partnership for Health System Improvement co-sponsorship fund and $300,000 to the Foundation's Research, Exchange and Impact for System Support (REISS) new grants competition);
- $500,000 to the Nursing Care Partnership Fund for research on nursing care, administered by the Canadian Nurses Foundation;
- $500,000 for nursing chairs in the Foundation's CHSRF/CIHR Chair Awards;
- $750,000 for training in the CADRE Program (excluding the chair awards) to address short-term and long-term capacity-building for applied health services and nursing research; and
- $250,000 for knowledge networks and dissemination activities.
A report highlighting the Foundation's commitment to nursing in 2005
