US nursing and midwifery research capacity building opportunities to achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals

To meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the United States, research by nurses and midwives has a real opportunity to make a significant impact. This paper identifies opportunities to strengthen research capacity in the United States amongst nurses and midwives in ways that will help meet the SDGs and ensure its sustainability. Research capacity means that in a country, there are individuals and teams capable of defining problems, setting priorities, establishing objectives for the goals of the research study, and following rigorous scientific procedures. By strengthening U.S. research capacity by addressing critical weaknesses in content expertise, nursing and midwifery's voices in policy dialogues, and global research initiatives will be have greater assurance of being included.