NIH RePORTER, made easy: check who NIH funds before you write your grant

Common NIH RePORTER searches, one page each

Most people open NIH RePORTER for the same few questions. Each one has its own page here, built on the same RePORTER project data.

• Search NIH grants by PI nameEvery recent NIH award for one investigator, with funding status at a glance.
• Search NIH grants by topicAward counts and dollars by fiscal year for any keyword, plus the latest matching projects.
• Find PIs funded in a research areaThe investigators NIH funds most in a field, ranked by recent awards.
• NIH funding by institutionUniversities, medical schools, and hospitals ranked by NIH dollars, each with a profile.
• NIH grants by activity codeR01, R21, K99/R00, F32, T32, U01, and more: what each funds and recent awards.
• Newest NIH awardsA feed of recently issued awards, with a filter for new awards only.
• Open NIH funding opportunitiesEvery open NOFO with due dates and the projects already funded under it.
• Newly funded labs for postdoc jobsLabs with a new R01 or an R00 start in the last 90 days, by field, state, and institution.

What is NIH RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools)?

NIH RePORTER is the official NIH database of funded research. The name stands for Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results. It covers projects funded by NIH and several other HHS agencies, including the abstract, principal investigators, organization, funding institute, activity code, award amount by fiscal year, and the publications, patents, and clinical studies linked to each project.

RePORTER has four parts worth knowing: the project search at reporter.nih.gov, Matchmaker (find projects similar to a block of text), ExPORTER (bulk download files), and the RePORTER API. GotGrant uses the API.

How to search NIH RePORTER

1. 1

   Start with Quick Search or Advanced Search

   Quick Search on the RePORTER home page matches words in project titles, abstracts, and NIH scientific terms. Advanced Search adds fields: fiscal year, PI or program officer name, organization, state, activity code (such as R01), funding institute or center, study section, award type, and funding opportunity number.

2. 2

   Narrow by fiscal year and activity code

   Most searches return thousands of projects across many years. Limit fiscal years to the last two or three and pick the activity codes you care about (R01, R21, K99) before reading any results.

3. 3

   Open a project for the details

   Each project page shows the abstract, public health relevance, PI and contact PI, program officer, study section, award amount by year, sub-projects, and linked publications, patents, and clinical studies.

4. 4

   Export or map the results

   Results export to spreadsheet formats, and the map view shows funding by state and organization. For repeated or large pulls, the RePORTER API and the ExPORTER bulk files are faster than the web interface.

Before you write a proposal, the most useful RePORTER searches are the funded grants closest to your aims and the program officers who manage them. Our guide Using NIH RePORTER before you write walks through that research step by step.

NIH RePORTER vs GotGrant

RePORTER is the source of record and the best place to verify a single project. GotGrant is for the questions you ask again and again: where a field’s funding is going, who just got funded, and what is new since last week.

NIH RePORTER Matchmaker

Matchmaker takes up to a few pages of text, such as your specific aims or an abstract, and returns funded NIH projects with similar scientific content. It also summarizes which program officers, institutes, and study sections those similar projects share, which helps you choose an institute and a study section before you submit. Open it from the RePORTER home page.

To see how much NIH puts into your topic each year, and which institutes fund it, use funding trends and institute fit after Matchmaker.

NIH RePORTER API

The RePORTER API (version 2) takes a JSON search and returns matching projects. It needs no key. Projects are searched at /v2/projects/search and publications at /v2/publications/search. Results come in pages of up to 500 records. NIH asks for no more than about one request per second, with large jobs run on evenings or weekends (Eastern time). This request returns fiscal year 2026 R01s that mention glioblastoma in the title or abstract:

curl -X POST https://api.reporter.nih.gov/v2/projects/search \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "criteria": {
      "fiscal_years": [2026],
      "activity_codes": ["R01"],
      "advanced_text_search": {
        "operator": "and",
        "search_field": "projecttitle,abstracttext",
        "search_text": "glioblastoma"
      }
    },
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 50
  }'

Full field lists and limits are in the official API documentation. If you only need alerts for new awards, a saved search with email alerts does the polling for you.

NIH RePORTER questions

What is NIH RePORTER?

NIH RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results) is the official, public NIH database of funded research projects. It lists projects funded by NIH and several other HHS agencies, with abstracts, investigators, organizations, award amounts, and linked publications, patents, and clinical studies.

Is NIH RePORTER free?

Yes. NIH RePORTER, its API, and the ExPORTER bulk files are free and need no account. GotGrant uses the same public data, and its data pages and tool previews are free too; GotGrant Pro adds full results, saved searches, and alerts.

Is GotGrant affiliated with NIH or NIH RePORTER?

No. GotGrant is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIH, HHS, or the U.S. government. It reads public NIH RePORTER data and links every record back to its official RePORTER page so you can check it.

How do I search NIH RePORTER by PI name?

In RePORTER Advanced Search, enter the name in the PI field (last name, first name works best) and set the fiscal years. On GotGrant, type the name into the PI search on this page to see that investigator’s recent NIH awards and whether they are currently funded.

What is NIH RePORTER Matchmaker?

Matchmaker is a RePORTER tool that takes a block of text, such as your specific aims or an abstract, and returns funded projects with similar scientific content, along with the program officers and study sections most associated with them. It is a quick way to find competing grants and the right NIH institute before you submit.

How often is NIH RePORTER updated?

NIH refreshes RePORTER data on a regular schedule, typically weekly, and new awards usually appear within a few weeks of being issued. GotGrant queries RePORTER directly, so its tools see new awards as soon as RePORTER publishes them.

Does NIH RePORTER have an API?

Yes. The RePORTER API at api.reporter.nih.gov accepts JSON search requests for projects and publications without an API key. NIH asks users to keep to about one request per second and to run large jobs outside business hours (Eastern time).