of personal barriers. The contextual barriers were defined as the limitations experienced from others (Figure 3). Almost half of the participants (n=20; 46.5%) experienced a lack of acceptance from colleagues and their head section nurse to prioritize time for research, and one-quarter of the participants (n=11; 25.6%) rated a lack of teaching and guidance as a contextual barrier for increasing their knowledge and competencies. PLEASE INSERT FIGURE 3 ABOUT HERE DISCUSSION This study was carried out to determine the nurses’ self-perceived theoretical knowledge and practical research competencies and their interest and motivation to increase these in everyday practice. The results indicated that despite the majority of the nurses having a low degree of selfperceived theoretical knowledge and practical research competencies, they still had a high interest in nursing research and a high motivation for improving their skills. However, the nurses’ motivation was inhibited by barriers such as lack of time and lack of acceptance from colleagues and their head section nurse to prioritize time for research. Results indicated that the nurses felt more knowledgeable about the initial phases of research, such as developing a research question, getting an idea for a research project and methodology. The areas where the nurses lacked practical competencies in the research process were performing statistical analysis, and appraising and writing scientific papers. The nurses’ low degree of self-perceived competencies in practical research could be connected with their low degree of theoretical knowledge. However, this finding was unexpected since 19 nurses (44.1%) held Bachelor degrees, which should indicate a higher level of research knowledge. Other studies have found clinical nurses’ research-related knowledge and education to be insufficient (Akerjordet et al., 2012; Brown et al., 2010; Breimaier et al., 2011). The literature shows that the clinical nurses’ research-related knowledge is rarely sufficient for using research findings in daily practice (Breimeier et al., 2011) and that only a few clinical nurses obtain knowledge from research articles (Glacken & Chaney, 2004). An American survey of 760 registered nurses found that the nurses sought more information from their colleagues than from the literature and that they valued their own experience the highest (Pravikoff et al., 2005). A possible explanation for the nurses low degree of research knowledge in our survey could be that over half of the nurses (62.7%) were over 40 years of age and were educated before evidence-based education was a mandatory in Denmark. However, in contrast, over half of the nurses who participated in our survey held Bachelor degrees in nursing. In Akerjordet and colleagues’ (2012) survey of 364 clinical nurses 28.6% had a Masters degree. However, the mean of their current self-perceived research skill level was 1.87 on a 1-5 point scale, with 5 as the higher score. It could therefore be assumed that the clinical nurses lack confidence in their educational research skills and that we need to focus on supporting the clinical nurses’ abilities to perform developmental, as well as research, projects under the supervision of a researcher educated to a higher level. More than three-quarters of the nurses in our survey indicated an interest in nursing research and high motivation in improving their theoretical and practical knowledge. They were also convinced that research ought to be a central part of their daily practice. In an Australian survey of 32 mental health consultation nurses, McMaster and colleagues (2013) found that 41% of the participants reported an interest in becoming involved in research and 53% reported their current research skills to be ‘moderate’ or ‘good’. Results also showed that 53% reported having research goals over the next twelve months (McMaster et al., 2013). This could suggest that nursing research is moving forward and is regarded as more relevant for clinical nurses. Through recent years a positive change has been seen in nurses’ attitudes towards research (Higgins et al., 2010, Akerjordet et al., 2010) and there is a growing need for basic learning and an interest in increasing