# Research Lab Finder: Funded Labs by Topic (NIH, NSF, PubMed) (`clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder`) Actor

Find the labs actually working on a research topic: principal investigators, institutions, active NIH and NSF grants and funding totals, plus their latest PubMed papers. For licensing, partnering, recruiting and sales.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Clearfeed Labs](https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 lab rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### Research Lab Finder: Funded Labs by Topic (NIH, NSF, PubMed)

**Research Lab Finder** finds the **labs actually working on a research topic right now**, from the money trail rather than keyword-matched web pages. It searches **NIH RePORTER** and **NSF Award Search** for active grants on your topics, groups them by **principal investigator and institution**, totals their funding, and can attach each PI's **latest PubMed papers** on the topic.

Built for **tech-transfer and licensing teams, biotech/pharma BD and search & evaluation, VCs and scouts, life-science tool and reagent sales, recruiters, and researchers looking for collaborators**.

- One row per **lab** (PI + institution): title, department, city/state, matched topics, number of grants, **total funding**, funders (e.g. NIH NCI, NSF CHE), when the latest grant ends, top 5 grants with links.
- Labs that match **more of your topics** rank first, then by funding.
- Filters: active grants only (default), US states, minimum funding.
- **Add-on (off by default)**: up to 5 recent PubMed papers per PI on your topics, with DOI and link.
- **No emails or phone numbers** are collected, even though NSF's API exposes them.

No login, no API key, no proxies: documented public government APIs, called politely with an identifying User-Agent.

Use it as an **NIH RePORTER scraper / API alternative**, an **NSF award search export**, a **principal investigator finder** or a **research collaborator and KOL search tool**: search by topic (e.g. *CRISPR base editing*, *perovskite solar*, *Alzheimer's tau*), filter by state and funding, and export labs to CSV, Excel, JSON or your CRM.

#### Why this one

| | This Actor | Typical paper or Scholar scraper |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of output | Lab (PI + institution) with funding | Individual papers |
| Signal of real activity | Active federal grants + $ | Citations / keyword hits |
| Sources | NIH RePORTER + NSF + PubMed | One site, often scraped |
| Multi-topic ranking | Labs matching more topics first | No |
| Privacy | No contact data | Often scrapes emails |

#### Pricing (pay per event)

| Event | Price | When |
|---|---|---|
| Lab row | **$0.004** | Each lab returned |
| Recent papers add-on | +$0.003 per lab | Only if `addRecentPapers` is on |
| Actor start | $0.00005 | Apify's standard start event |

**How that compares:** paper and Scholar scrapers on the Store cost about $1–$5 per 1,000 *papers*, and you'd still need to dedupe authors, find affiliations and work out who is funded. A lab row is already that finished lead, so a **top-50 lab list costs $0.20** ($0.35 with papers).

**Billing examples:** no incremental mode; you pay per lab returned: 50 labs = $0.20; 50 labs with papers = $0.35; a run with no matching labs = start event only. Set **Max charge per run** to cap spend.

#### Input examples

Gene-editing labs with active funding and recent papers:

```json
{ "topics": ["base editing", "prime editing"], "addRecentPapers": true, "maxItems": 50 }
```

Perovskite solar groups in California (NSF only):

```json
{ "topics": ["perovskite solar"], "sources": ["nsf"], "states": ["CA"] }
```

#### Output (one row)

`piName`, `piTitle`, `institution`, `department`, `city`, `state`, `country`, `matchedTopics`, `grantCount`, `totalFunding`, `funders`, `latestGrantEnds`, `topGrants[]` (source, id, title, amount, start, end, funder, url), `nihPortfolioUrl`, `sources`, plus `recentPapers[]` and `recentPaperCount` with the add-on.

#### Abstracts and co-investigators

Each entry in `topGrants` includes an `abstractExcerpt` (the first ~400 characters of the official NIH RePORTER or NSF abstract) and `coInvestigators` (the other named PIs on that grant). Each lab row also has a combined `coInvestigators` list (up to 20). Names only: NSF co-PI email addresses are removed, and former co-PIs are left out.

#### Notes

- `totalFunding` sums, per lab, the **latest fiscal-year award amount** of each matched NIH project and the **obligated amount to date** of each NSF award. These are different measures (annual vs cumulative), so treat the total as a rough funding signal, not a comparable dollar figure.
- **No double counting of repeat years or subprojects:** NIH lists a project once per fiscal year and lists multi-component subprojects under the same core number. Records are collapsed to one grant per core project number (e.g. `R01CA123456`), keeping the latest fiscal year, and a grant matching several of your topics is counted once.
- **Funding is not a purchasing budget.** Grant money is mostly committed to salaries, indirect costs and planned work; a large award doesn't mean the lab can or will buy your product or service.
- PubMed author matching uses surname + first initial plus your topics, so common names can occasionally pull a paper from someone else; check the links.
- Labs are keyed on the **contact PI**; other named PIs on each grant appear in `coInvestigators` (see below).

#### FAQ

**How do I find which labs are working on a research topic?**
Enter one or more topics (e.g. `"prime editing"`, `"solid-state batteries"`). The Actor searches active NIH and NSF grants for those terms and returns one row per lab (principal investigator + institution), ranked by how many of your topics they match and by funding.

**Is this an NIH RePORTER scraper?**
It uses the official, documented NIH RePORTER API v2 and NSF Award Search API, not page scraping, so results are stable and complete. PubMed papers come from NCBI E-utilities.

**Does it return PI email addresses or phone numbers?**
No. It's a deliberate privacy choice: NSF contact emails are stripped. You get names, titles, departments, institutions and grant links, which is usually enough to find the lab's public page.

**Can I filter by state, funding amount or funding agency?**
Yes: `states` (US two-letter codes), `minTotalFunding`, `sources` (`nih`, `nsf`) and `activeOnly` (on by default).

**How much does it cost?**
$0.004 per lab row ($4 per 1,000 labs), plus $0.003 per lab only if you turn on recent PubMed papers. 50 labs with papers cost about $0.35.

**Can I export to CSV, Excel or a CRM, or schedule it?**
Yes. Download results as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, call it from the Apify API, Zapier, Make or MCP-compatible AI agents, and schedule weekly runs to catch newly funded labs.

**Who uses it?**
Tech-transfer and licensing offices, biotech and pharma business development (search & evaluation), venture scouts, life-science tool and reagent sales teams, recruiters and academics looking for collaborators.

#### Data sources and legal notes

- **NIH RePORTER API v2**: public, documented, no key; spaced at about 1 request per second as NIH asks.
- **NSF Award Search API**: public, documented, no key.
- **NCBI E-utilities (PubMed)**, add-on only: documented public API with `tool` and `email` as NCBI asks, under 3 requests per second; bibliographic metadata only.
- U.S. government data is public domain. Not affiliated with or endorsed by NIH, NSF or NLM.

#### Disclaimer

Data is provided **as is** from public registries and can lag or contain errors. It **isn't investment, legal or scientific advice**. Treat researchers professionally: use this for legitimate research, partnering, licensing and hiring, follow anti-spam laws (CAN-SPAM, GDPR) when you reach out, and don't use it to harass anyone.

#### Support

Found a problem or want another funder (DOE, DoD, EU CORDIS) added? Open an issue on this Actor's **Issues** tab. More Clearfeed Labs data feeds: [clearfeedlabs.com](https://clearfeedlabs.com).

### Related Clearfeed Labs Actors

- [Grants.gov Scraper & Grant Finder API: NSF, NIH Fellowships](https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs/grant-fellowship-radar): federal grants and fellowships with deadlines
- [ClinicalTrials.gov Scraper & Trial Change Tracker: PubMed + FDA](https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs/clinical-trial-tracker): ClinicalTrials.gov changes and new trials
- [USAspending Scraper: Federal Contract & Grant Award Alerts](https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs/money-trail-federal-awards): federal contract and grant awards with recompete details
- [All Clearfeed Labs Actors](https://apify.com/clearfeedlabs)

# Actor input Schema

## `topics` (type: `array`):

Phrases searched in grant titles, abstracts and terms. Labs matching more topics rank higher.

## `sources` (type: `array`):

Which federal grant databases to search.

## `activeOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only grants that haven't ended (NIH: current and last fiscal year).

## `states` (type: `array`):

Only labs at institutions in these states (2-letter codes).

## `minTotalFunding` (type: `integer`):

Skip labs below this matched funding.

## `maxGrantsPerTopic` (type: `integer`):

Higher = more complete, slower.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Each lab row is charged.

## `addRecentPapers` (type: `boolean`):

Up to 5 recent papers (last 5 years) with journal, date, DOI and link, plus a paper count.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "topics": [
    "base editing",
    "prime editing"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "nih",
    "nsf"
  ],
  "activeOnly": true,
  "maxGrantsPerTopic": 500,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "addRecentPapers": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "topics": [
        "base editing",
        "prime editing"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "topics": [
        "base editing",
        "prime editing",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "topics": [
    "base editing",
    "prime editing"
  ]
}' |
apify call clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,clearfeedlabs/paper-to-lab-research-finder"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/89qBnpZVyLJpU8e45/builds/mCyeYLfsDLgWMYqIs/openapi.json