The National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) was created in 1951. In this national organ of research support, the Nursing is inserted as a knowledge area from 1970's and passed on to an area representative since 1980's. This present article has as object the historical rescue of the Nursing as knowledge area at the CNPq. It aims to detach the Nursing insertion at this organ and its contribution for the knowledge of the Brazilian Nursing History. It is a question about a documentary study supported by depoiments of the representative nurses of the nursing area in the course of the existence of the Nursing as an area at the CNPq. The information described showed the importance and the evolution of the Nursing as science and technology in this organ, the importance of the promotion for making the research viable, the stimulation to the increment of the research, the advances in producing knowledge, the challenges faced and perspectives as possibilities for the strengthening and consolidation of the Nursing. The CNPq is an important agency of promoting politics for the advance of the Nursing.
Nursing; Science; Nursing Research; History of Nursing