NIH RePORTER Project Scraper

Export funded NIH project records from the official NIH RePORTER public API.

What does NIH RePORTER Project Scraper do?

NIH RePORTER Project Scraper turns NIH RePORTER searches into clean datasets.

It searches funded projects by keyword, fiscal year, agency, organization, PI, activity code, project number, and APPL ID.

The actor saves grant records with award amounts, project dates, organization fields, PI names, agency/IC metadata, abstracts, and direct NIH project URLs.

Who is it for?

• 🏛️ University research offices tracking funded awards.
• 🔬 Grant prospecting teams finding comparable projects.
• 💊 Pharma and biotech analysts monitoring NIH-funded research.
• 📊 Consultants building market maps from federal funding data.
• 🧑‍💼 Business development teams finding investigators and institutions.

Why use this actor?

The NIH RePORTER website is useful for manual research, but repeat workflows need structured exports.

This actor uses the public API directly, so it is fast, stable, and does not need a browser.

You can schedule runs, export CSV/JSON/Excel, or connect the dataset to downstream systems.

Data source

The actor calls:

https://api.reporter.nih.gov/v2/projects/search

This is the official public NIH RePORTER API.

Input options

Use one filter or combine several filters.

• Search terms
• Fiscal years
• Organization names
• Organization states
• Organization countries
• Principal investigator names
• NIH institutes and centers
• Activity codes
• Project numbers
• APPL IDs
• Maximum projects
• API page size
• Optional topic terms

Example searches

Search recent cancer immunotherapy awards.

Search R01 grants funded by NCI in fiscal year 2024.

Search awards to a specific university.

Search one investigator's NIH-funded project portfolio.

Search a list of known APPL IDs.

Output data

Each dataset row is one NIH project record.

Field	Description
applId	NIH application ID
projectNumber	Full project number
projectTitle	Project title
fiscalYear	NIH fiscal year
awardAmount	Award amount when available
activityCode	NIH activity code
agencyCode	NIH IC abbreviation
agencyName	NIH institute/center name
organizationName	Recipient organization
contactPiName	Contact principal investigator
reporterUrl	NIH RePORTER project URL

Pricing: How much does it cost to scrape NIH RePORTER projects?

The actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

There is a small start charge per run and a per-project charge for every saved dataset item.

Small searches are inexpensive because the actor uses direct API requests and no proxy.

How to run

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Enter one or more search terms.
3. Add fiscal years or agencies if needed.
4. Set maxItems to the number of projects you want.
5. Click Start.
6. Download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or via API.

Input example

{
  "terms": ["cancer immunotherapy"],
  "fiscalYears": [2024],
  "agencies": ["NCI"],
  "activityCodes": ["R01"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Output example

{
  "applId": 10757019,
  "projectNumber": "5R01CA276268-02",
  "projectTitle": "Example NIH funded project title",
  "fiscalYear": 2024,
  "awardAmount": 123456,
  "agencyCode": "NCI",
  "organizationName": "DANA-FARBER CANCER INST",
  "contactPiName": "DOE, JANE",
  "reporterUrl": "https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10757019"
}

Tips for best results

Use focused terms for prospecting.

Use fiscal years to keep exports current.

Use activity codes like R01, R21, U01, P30, or F32 when you need award-type segmentation.

Set includeTerms only when you need NIH controlled terms because it can make output rows larger.

Common use cases

• Find funded projects in a disease area.
• Build grant prospecting lists.
• Monitor competitive research programs.
• Map organizations receiving NIH awards.
• Export projects for BI dashboards.
• Create recurring award reports.

Integrations

Send dataset rows to Google Sheets.

Load CSV exports into Excel or Airtable.

Use webhooks to trigger enrichment when a run finishes.

Connect Apify datasets to BI tools through the Apify API.

API usage with Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/nih-reporter-project-scraper').call({
  terms: ['cancer immunotherapy'],
  fiscalYears: [2024],
  maxItems: 100
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/nih-reporter-project-scraper').call(run_input={
    'terms': ['cancer immunotherapy'],
    'fiscalYears': [2024],
    'maxItems': 100,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~nih-reporter-project-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"terms":["cancer immunotherapy"],"fiscalYears":[2024],"maxItems":100}'

MCP integration

Use the actor from Claude Desktop or Claude Code through Apify MCP.

MCP URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/nih-reporter-project-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add apify https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/nih-reporter-project-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/nih-reporter-project-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Find 50 NIH-funded cancer immunotherapy projects from fiscal year 2024."
• "Export NCI R01 awards and summarize top recipient organizations."
• "Create a prospecting list of investigators working on Alzheimer's disease grants."

Scheduling

Schedule the actor weekly or monthly to monitor new NIH-funded projects.

Use fiscal year filters and consistent keywords to keep recurring exports comparable.

Data quality notes

The actor returns data as provided by NIH RePORTER.

Some awards may omit award amount, abstract text, or organization details.

Dates are kept in the API's ISO-style format.

Legality

NIH RePORTER data is public government research-award data.

Use exports responsibly and follow applicable laws, NIH terms, and your organization's compliance rules.

Do not use contact or investigator data for spam.

Troubleshooting

If you receive no results, broaden the search terms or remove restrictive filters.

If a sort field fails, remove it and let NIH return the default relevance/order.

If rows are large, turn off includeTerms.

Related scrapers

Explore related Automation Lab actors at:

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/

FAQ

Does this actor need a proxy?

No. It uses the official public API.

Does it scrape the NIH website UI?

No. It calls the API used for structured RePORTER project search.

Can I search by APPL ID?

Yes. Use the applIds input.

Can I export abstracts?

Yes. Abstract text is included when the API returns it.

Can I schedule monitoring?

Yes. Use Apify schedules with the same input filters.

Changelog

Initial version: official API project search export.

Support

If a filter does not behave as expected, include your run input and desired NIH RePORTER query in the issue.

Workflow examples

Grant analysts can create repeatable exports for the same scientific area and compare funding totals over time.

Research offices can monitor fiscal-year activity for their institution, partner organizations, or peer universities.

Business development teams can discover active awardees, principal investigators, and project titles in a therapeutic area.

Competitive-intelligence teams can build market maps from organization names, award amounts, activity codes, and NIH source links.

The actor keeps these workflows in one structured dataset, supports both small and large API exports, avoids browser automation and proxy costs, and returns CSV-friendly fields for BI dashboards, grant landscape reviews, investigator prospecting, and institution benchmarking.