Building Research Capacity in Nursing Academia in 2020: Is the Road Less Perilous?

Background: Building research capacity in nursing academic units continues to be a challenge. There are a number of external contextual factors and internal factors that influence individual faculty as well as the collective to engage successfully in research.

Purpose: The overall aim of this opinion article is to provide an overview of the current external and internal, processes and structures, relevant to capacity of nursing faculty to engage in research.

Methods: To inform the external context, we reviewed national research funding trends for nursing. To inform the internal context, we provided an exemplar of the internal processes and structures designed to support research capacity building within our academic unit.

Results: Canadian Institutes of Health Research funding trends for research grants led by nurse principal applicants increased between 2010 and 2013, followed by a steady decline. In 2017 to 2018, there were only 24 research grants led by nurse principal applicants. These external challenges coupled with the traditional internal barriers, such as the imbalance between teaching and research time, threaten research capacity for nursing academics.

Conclusion: Organizational strategies to promote research capacity within academic nursing units are a necessary requirement to move forward.