Research Grants

Since 1955, more than 1,100 beginning and experienced nurse researchers have received over $6 million for research addressing important issues of practice of care and the profession. In keeping with both the terms of the fund endowments that we steward with great care, and the spirit of innovation, the American Nurses Foundation is taking the Nursing Research Grants program in a new direction.

Rather than a singular annual RFP, the Foundation will issue separate targeted calls for proposals over the course of the year, and make some commissioned research grants. These grants, though fewer in number than previous years, will be larger in size, and more strategically targeted to address topics that are essentially pertinent at this time, and consistent with the ANAE Enterprise strategic plan, Foundation core interests, and the purposes of endowed funds. 

• Open grant opportunities and recent awards are listed below. As additional research grant opportunities open, notice will be posted to this webpage. 

Nursing Research Grant Opportunities: If you would like to receive direct notice of new grant opportunities, please fill out this form and you will be added to the email distribution list to receive updates when new grant opportunities are posted

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Open Funding Opportunities

Collaborative Care Grant - RFP now open, applications due December 10

This interprofessional collaboration between nurses and pharmacists, offered in partnership with the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation, awards $75,000 over 18 months. This joint endeavor supports innovative projects co-led by nurses and pharmacists to stimulate and demonstrate how team-based care enhances safe and effective use of medications. 

• Innovating or evaluating new services or technologies to minimize barriers to care for populations such as at-risk or complex patients from underserved communities, or individuals who are elderly, have comorbidities or require chronic care.
• Focusing on complex systems and processes (e.g. emergency departments), transitions of care, continuums of care, preventative care. 
• Priority to be given to research that measures teamwork and meaningful outcomes, such as decreased patient harm, increased patient involvement in care, reduced hospital admissions/readmissions, and improved quality of life.

Interested applicants can find the RFP here. How to Apply webinar: Aug. 9, 2023 at noon ET, and the recording will be posted shortly thereafter.

Nursing Leadership Research Grant - RFP opens October 11, applications due December 15

American Nurses Foundation and Association for Leadership Science in Nursing are partnering to offer a 2-year, $20,000 research grant from the Joyce J. Fitzpatrick Leadership Research Endowment. This will provide funding for one research study that advances the science supporting and reframing the role of frontline nurse leaders (e.g., nurse managers, assistant nurse managers, administrative supervisors, nursing directors). Of particular interest are studies that examine specific system-level strategies that address frontline nurse leader span of control, work-life balance, and career advancement. This call is for research proposals on frontline nurse leaders and supports the following research priority areas:

• Nurses' health, well-being, resiliency, and safety in the workplace
• Healthy work and practice environments for nurse leaders
• Nurse leaders' development and essential competencies
  
  

Interested applicants can find the RFP here.

Grants Awarded

Collaborative Care Grants for Nurse-Pharmacist Research Teams

Optimizing patient-centered, team-based care is essential to ensuring equitable, effective, and efficient health care. The American Nurses Foundation and the ASHP Foundation have joined in partnership to offer the second competitive grant to support innovative projects, co-led by nursing and pharmacy, to stimulate and demonstrate the impact of team-based care that enhances the safe and effective use of medications. 

The award provides $75,000 for an 18-month research project, led by Co-Investigators Christine Marie Hallman, DNP, APRN, ACHPN, NP-C, primary nurse practitioner for the community-based telehealth PATCH program at MedStar Health Washington Hospital Center, and Kathryn A. Walker, PharmD, BCPS, FAAHPM, assistant vice president at MedStar Health and an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Their feasibility study seeks to implement a standardized, patient-centered, team-based deprescribing process in a diverse community-based palliative care PATCH (Palliative Telehealth Connecting to Home) Program. This effort aims to ensure all patients can benefit from careful alignment of their medications and goals of care. The study will help establish a new model of team-based deprescribing in an underserved population by incorporating a structured approach within the standard clinical workflow. In the future, the findings can serve as a resource to other teams caring for patients with serious illness, providing insight into patient/family experiences and thereby filing a gap within the existing body of literature. Read more about the award here.

The grant was supported in part by generous contributions from Stryker Medical to American Nurses Foundation for research purposes. 

Study results were published in the American Journal of Cardiology - DOI.

Awarded

Ambulatory Research Grant
With support from the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC) Research Endowment Fund, the Foundation has bestowed its first ambulatory care research grant. This $200,000 award to co-principal investigators Kortney F. James, PhD, RN, PNP, Associate Health Policy Researcher at RAND Corporation, and Kristen Choi, PhD, MS, RN, Assistant Professor of Nursing and Public Health at UCLA and co-investigators Misty Richards, MD, MS, and Joann Elmore, MD, MPH, supports a 2-year study, Nurses Address Perinatal Mental Health Inequities among Black Women and Birthing People: A Feasibility Study.

Registered nurses are the largest segment of the healthcare workforce in the United States, and as such, nurses are in an ideal position to identify pregnany/postpartum people who may have depression and/or anxiety. This study will leverage the skills and expertise of registered nurses to achieve health equity for Black women and birthing people by implementing Black Maternal Health 360, a training grounded in principles of Reproductive Justice to combat implicit racial bias among registered nurses. The training also uses a nurse-led depression and anxiety screening protocol to refer Black women to local, culturally appropriate, and holistic mental health resources. Utilizing nurses to address mood and anxiety disorders from a Reproductive Justice framework may contribute to reduced racial disparities and greater health equity in mental health outcomes for Black pregnant and postpartum women/birthing people. 

The Foundation identified the Fund's inaugural grant with counsel from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).