Having as mission to promote and encourage nursing research as a factor for professional excellence to benefit citizens’ health in the EU and in Europe; to use nursing research to influence EU policies; and to promote evidence-based decision-making, the main strategic goals of the Foundation are:

  • To promote quality nursing research, and education and training programmes that can be developed in member countries as a consequence of research projects;
  • To obtain funds and financial aid for research projects, human resources and infrastructures;
  • To establish partnerships with universities, institutions, and public or private organisations; To disseminate science, transferring the results of research projects to society; To collaborate with national and international research centres providing training opportunities; and,
  • To guarantee the principle of lawfulness, as well as the principles of ethical, professional conduct in research and knowledge management.

Equally important for the nurses are the Foundation values:

✔ Innovation✔ Humanism
✔ Quality✔ Translation of knowledge
✔ Transparency✔ Orientation towards users and professionals

In practice, the ENRF objective is to analyse & compile what already exists in terms of nursing research in the EU Member States, in order to convert existing data into evidence-based advocacy for the EU policy-making process.

To achieve these strategic goals, the Foundation’s research capacity must be developed by creating a network of research collaborating centres in alliance with the EFN member associations, in order to develop synergies and increase the ability to lobby for the design of health policies, policy making, and the allocation of EU funds to projects, as well as regarding the EU H2020 research agenda and beyond.

The ENRF SORPs presented here are linked to the EFN Strategic and Operational Lobby Plans (EFN SOLP), and highlight four areas of scientific interest are defined: a) Positive environments for professional nursing practice; b) Self-care: improvement of healthcare outcomes in chronic processes; c) Education and training of nurses in Europe; d) Innovation to improve nursing clinical practice.