The present study analyses the themes proposed by research projects in nursing. It focuses on the projects that were sent to a Brazilian governmental research fomentation agency -CNPq - in the period of time between November 1998 and November 2000. The objective of this work is to identify the recurrent themes proposed in nursing research projects, and discuss its adherence to lines of research under study by nursing professionals which have the support of CAPES. It also relates these themes to the priorities of research established by CNPq. In order to achieve the objectives mentioned, an exploratory and descriptive study was carried out. The primary sources were evaluation grids of research projects. The secondary sources were studies, written and statistics reports from CNPq . Results show that most of the scholarships awarded by CNPq are in the southeast region of Brazil, where a larger number of researchers and post-graduation programs are concentrated. It also reveals that there is a diversity of themes being explored and that there is a relation between the themes and the parameters adopted for the studies
CNPq; theme tendencies; nursing research; nursing