NIH RePORTER Scraper

NIH RePORTER Scraper

Scrape NIH RePORTER research projects by keyword, agency, or fiscal year, up to a million per run. Each project comes with its title, abstract, PI, funding, and computed signals. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

NIH RePORTER's official API needs a registration, OAuth, and rate-limits you. This reads the public project search directly, filtered by keyword, agency, fiscal year, or active status, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape NIH RePORTER for
Market researchers	Which NIH-funded projects are active in a disease area
Grant writers	What similar projects have been funded and by which institute
University tech transfer offices	Which PIs and institutions are receiving NIH funding
Biotech analysts	Trends in NIH funding by agency and fiscal year

What it does

This Actor collects NIH research projects by keyword, agency, or fiscal year, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Keyword search: searches the project terms field for your term, e.g. 'cancer' or 'CRISPR'.
• 🏛️ Agency filter: restrict to one NIH institute or center, e.g. NCI, NIMH, NIAID.
• 📅 Fiscal year filter: pull projects funded in a specific fiscal year, e.g. 2024.
• ✅ Active projects only: return only currently active projects, or include completed ones.
• 📊 Computed signals: project title, abstract, PI, funding amount, and more, in one flat row.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with NIH RePORTER data

📈 Track funding trends.

A market researcher runs the Actor with keyword 'Alzheimer's' and fiscal year 2024 to see which NIH institutes are funding the most projects.

📝 Find similar funded projects.

A grant writer searches for 'CRISPR' and agency 'NCI' to find previously funded projects and their abstracts before writing a new proposal.

🏛️ Map institutional funding.

A tech transfer officer collects all active projects for a university by searching the institution name to identify PIs and funding amounts.

🔬 Monitor competitor research.

A biotech analyst runs the Actor weekly with a disease keyword to see new NIH-funded projects from competing labs.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	No registration or OAuth, run the Actor
Up to 1M projects	Collect up to a million projects per run
Fixed schema	Every project returns the same flat fields
Export anywhere	CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML

How it compares

No other Store actor targets NIH RePORTER the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	NIH RePORTER Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When NIH RePORTER changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a keyword, agency code, fiscal year, and active status, alone or together, and filters run as each project is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "keyword": "cancer",
 "maxItems": 10,
 "fiscalYear": 2024
}

A larger pull:

{
 "keyword": "cancer",
 "maxItems": 200,
 "fiscalYear": 2024
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0065 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.65
1,000 results	$6.50
10,000 results	$65.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the NIH RePORTER Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to NIH RePORTER through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your keyword spelling and try a broader term. Also verify the fiscalYear and agencyCode filters are correct. If isActive is true, there may be no active projects matching.

Why did the run stop before reaching maxItems?

The Actor stops when there are no more results matching your filters. Try broadening the keyword or removing filters.

Why is the run slow?

Large maxItems values take longer. Reduce maxItems or add filters to narrow the search.

Why are some fields empty?

Not all NIH projects have every field populated. Empty fields are normal for some projects.

Can I search by PI name?

The keyword input searches the terms field, which may include PI names. Try entering the PI's name as the keyword.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key or registration?	No. This Actor scrapes the public NIH RePORTER search directly, so no API key or OAuth is required.
What data does each project row include?	Each row includes the project title, abstract, principal investigator, funding amount, agency, fiscal year, and more, in a flat schema.
Can I filter by NIH institute?	Yes, use the agencyCode input to restrict results to one institute, e.g. 'NCI' for National Cancer Institute.
Can I search for a specific fiscal year?	Yes, set the fiscalYear input to any year, e.g. 2024, to return projects funded in that year.
How many projects can I collect?	Up to 1,000,000 projects per run, controlled by the maxItems input.
Can I get only active projects?	Yes, set isActive to true to return only currently active projects. Set it to false to include completed projects.
What export formats are supported?	You can export the results to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset.
Does the Actor search the full project text?	The keyword input searches the project terms field, which includes title, abstract, and other indexed terms.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes, you can schedule the Actor to run daily, weekly, or monthly to track new NIH projects.
Is this legal to scrape?	NIH RePORTER is a public government database. Scraping public data is generally allowed, but check the site's terms of service.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by National Institutes of Health. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.