Research ambitions within the fields of nursing and social work are complex. In addition to do active research and development work relevant to our own education programmes, we also want to contribute to TUC's major strategic goal of acquireing status as a full university by 2016.

The academic profile of the Faculty of Nursing and Social Work Studies focuses on two research areas called "Care 2015" and "Children and young adolescents".

These two research groups have as their main goal to impart knew knowledge through research based teaching and through professional practice and will do so by

• stimulating more faculty members to qualify themselves for positions as associate professors (e.g. start working on a PhD degree)
• improving the working conditions for associate professors in order for more of them to qualify themselves for full professorships
• building sustainable and robust academic staffs through the support of the two research groups mentioned above
• encouraging the search for more external funding of research activities
• taking on an advisory role for those who want to work out applications for external funding
• becoming an attractive Faculty to professors and students through encouraging student active research
• contributing to the further growth of the welfare society through regional development and wide contacts to the practical placement sector
• continuing networking with national and international contacts

The efforts to increase and prioritise our research activities have resulted in the establishing of the government supported Centre for Caring Research in collaboration with the University of Agder.