Objective: To identify in ACOFAEN academic units members, the situation in research component, the strengths and academic needs.Method: A descriptive study was conducted between 2010 and 2011.27 academic nursing units from Colombia were included.The instrument used was a diagnostic survey self-served out; 123 questions in total of which 27 corresponded to research.The information was processed using SPSS version 11.5; it was done an absolute and relative frequency distribution.Results: Research is transversal in the curriculum, 51% of the publications were in national journals, 20% in international journals.As subject areas include: care for life cycle and by subject, epidemiology, collective health, epistemology, administration and management.As research needs: building skills for research approaches and appropriation of evidence-based methodologies, grounded theory for qualitative approach.The national research priorities were: research for life cycle for action areas, for performance areas in priority problems, research in social determinants of health, millennium development goals, interdisciplinary, dissemination strategies, production visibility, new research methods, beyond description.Conclusion: The discussion and addressing research, is an element that should be integrated into the curriculum, for the research can be a key piece in training nurses, must respond to the needs of the people and the country.