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There is a belief within nursing that the profession has fared comparatively poorly in terms of R&D funding. A number of publications have commented on (2) and challenged (3, 4) this perspective which coincided with the establishment of the Nursing Professions R&D Priority Setting Initiative. This initiative aimed to improve the involvement of nurses, midwives and health visitors in research and development activities throughout the U.K (5, 6) . One of the recommendations of this initiative was to establish a strategic alliance of the key stakeholders – to be called the Strategic Alliance for Research in Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting (SARN) . In 1998 a shadow executive for this entity was established which identified the need to explore Research Charities potential as a source of funding for research activity in nursing. To this end, a small project (10 days) was commissioned by the Royal
College of Nursing on behalf of “SARN”.
 advise the research charities of the potential of the nursing, midwifery and health visiting contribution to R&D with in their field of interest
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Identify their experiences of working with the nursing professions and their track record in supporting the professions R&D endeavours
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Identify their willingness to support the development of the R&D capacity within the nursing professions
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Identify their willingness to support the R&D endeavour within the nursing profession.
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Identify how the nursing, midwifery and health visiting professions may assist them in shifting the focus of their agenda if they so wish
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Identify the scope of a comprehensive database for nurses, midwives and health visitors of the funding opportunities for R&D within the research charity sector
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Deliver the database and provide recommendations for future development
1 Crofts L , McMahon A . Raising the Profile of Nursing Research Amongst Medical Research Charities . 2000. Manchester , Royal
College of Nursing R&D Co-ordinating Centre .
2 Rafferty AM , Traynor M . Measuring the outputs of Nursing R&D . 2000. Centre for Policy in Nursing Research , London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine .
3 Brooker C , Read S , Morrell CJ , Repper J , Jones R , Akehurst R . Coming in from the cold? An analysis of research proposals submitted by the Nursing Section at ScHARR, 1994-1997... Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research... including commentary by Scott E . NT Research 1997; 2 ( 6 ):405-413.
4 Mead D , Moseley L , Cook R . The performance of nursing in the research stakes: Lessons from the field . NT Research 1997;
2 ( 5 ):335-344.
5 Kitson A , McMahon A , Rafferty AM , Scott E . On developing an agenda to influence policy in health-care research for effective nursing: A description of a national R&D priority-setting exercise . NT Research 1997; 2 ( 5 ):323-334.
6 Scott E , McMahon A , Kitson A , Rafferty AM . A national initiative to set priorities for R&D in nursing, midwifery and health visiting: investigating the method.
NT Research 1999; 4 ( 4 ):283-290.

The project brief was based on the following assumptions:
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If research charities knew what nursing research had to offer, they would want to work more closely with researchers and support them
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Research charities would want to support nursing because of the unique contribution nurses make to caring for the client groups these charities support
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As some research charities do support nursing research, there is potential for others to do so through the cross-fertilisation of ideas
A stakeholder analysis revealed three key groups of stakeholders, namely
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 research charities
 research policy makers researchers
Interviews were conducted with a sample of informants from each group of stakeholders to test the project assumptions - research policy makers n=2; research charities n= 5; researchers n= 6. .Details of informants and how they were selected can be found in the main report (Copies of the full report available from the RCN R&D Co-ordinating Centre email: rcn@man.ac.uk)..
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Research charities are never short of project ideas but they are always short of funds. Therefore any research it supports must be in keeping with it’s core business
 Research charities are not generally in the business of assisting ‘partners’ to build their research capacity, rather they expect partners to assist them.
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Policymakers consider nursing research ‘rarely disease specific or user focussed enough for the charitable sector’
 The National Lotteries Charities Board (NLCB) will fund research but only if it’s well designed and sufficiently focused on beneficiaries and must demonstrate a genuine collaboration between the charity and the academic partner. The next round of funding is later in 2001. (A fringe event to discuss this topic will be held on Friday)
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Researchers who have benefited from working with a sole charity have done so by building up a good relationship over time and getting to know the charity well.
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There are currently three models of research funding by charities
funding of course fees
research fellowships exclusive to nurses
nurses compete for funding with everyone else
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A focus on practice development appears to offer significant potential for researchers and charities in developing a collaborative agenda focusing on clinical effectiveness, systematic reviews and evaluative studies.
Crofts, L. & McMahon, A. Raising the profile of nursing research among medical research charities. NT Research 2002 7(5) : 378-389