Evaluating a Targeted Nursing Research Funding Model: Institutional and Policy Impact
Esther Vizcaino
(Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia)
Maite Solans-Domènech
(Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS))
Idoia Villanueva
(Healthcare Quality and Evaluation Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS))
Paula Adam
(AQuAS)
Paper Short Abstract
This study explores how targeted funding for healthcare professionals influences research agendas and evidence-based practice. Using a nursing research program as a case study, we assess its impact on research capacity, professional legitimacy, healthcare innovation, and nursing policy development.
Paper Abstract
Nursing research has traditionally played a limited role in how biomedicine addresses complex healthcare challenges. Targeted funding schemes for nursing research offer critical benefits: advancing both disciplinary and practice-oriented knowledge, strengthening research capacity and legitimacy, and supporting institutions, conditions, and methods often underfunded in conventional biomedical programs.
This study evaluates a Catalan research program (2017–2022) that funded 127 nurse-led projects to integrate research into clinical practice. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analyses of administrative data, qualitative insights from 30 in-depth impact case studies, and engagement with policy makers and healthcare professionals, we analysed the program’s bidirectional impact on nursing research, healthcare practices and policy strategies. Key findings include:
• Enhancing knowledge mobilization. Funded projects produced not only peer-reviewed publications but also diagnostic tools, care protocols, and educational materials leading to the implementation of new interventions, programs, and organizational changes.
• Strengthening professional roles. It supported the consolidation of the dual professional profile of nurse-researchers, increasing legitimacy within healthcare institutions.
• Informing institutional change and policy. The evaluation influenced the Catalan nursing research strategy, led to the development of a regional nursing research map, and integrated research objectives into professional development policies.
This case study demonstrates how evaluating funding models informs institutional transformation, strengthens transdisciplinary research cultures and provides scalable frameworks for embedding research into health systems, aligning funding with clinical needs, and involving practitioners in knowledge production. This model demonstrates how funders can design research programs that shorten the impact pathway, strengthen professional research cultures and shape evidence-based policy.
Accepted Poster
Paper Short Abstract
Paper Abstract
Nursing research has traditionally played a limited role in how biomedicine addresses complex healthcare challenges. Targeted funding schemes for nursing research offer critical benefits: advancing both disciplinary and practice-oriented knowledge, strengthening research capacity and legitimacy, and supporting institutions, conditions, and methods often underfunded in conventional biomedical programs.
This study evaluates a Catalan research program (2017–2022) that funded 127 nurse-led projects to integrate research into clinical practice. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analyses of administrative data, qualitative insights from 30 in-depth impact case studies, and engagement with policy makers and healthcare professionals, we analysed the program’s bidirectional impact on nursing research, healthcare practices and policy strategies. Key findings include:
• Enhancing knowledge mobilization. Funded projects produced not only peer-reviewed publications but also diagnostic tools, care protocols, and educational materials leading to the implementation of new interventions, programs, and organizational changes.
• Strengthening professional roles. It supported the consolidation of the dual professional profile of nurse-researchers, increasing legitimacy within healthcare institutions.
• Informing institutional change and policy. The evaluation influenced the Catalan nursing research strategy, led to the development of a regional nursing research map, and integrated research objectives into professional development policies.
This case study demonstrates how evaluating funding models informs institutional transformation, strengthens transdisciplinary research cultures and provides scalable frameworks for embedding research into health systems, aligning funding with clinical needs, and involving practitioners in knowledge production. This model demonstrates how funders can design research programs that shorten the impact pathway, strengthen professional research cultures and shape evidence-based policy.
Poster session
Session 1 Tuesday 1 July, 2025, -