# NSF Award and Grant Search (`agentictools/nsf-award-search`) Actor

Search US National Science Foundation awards by keyword or institution. Funding amounts, PIs, programs, dates, and abstracts from the official NSF API.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/agentictools/nsf-award-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Ken Agland](https://apify.com/agentictools) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 award returneds

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## NSF Award and Grant Search

Search US National Science Foundation awards by keyword or institution. Funding amounts, PIs, programs, dates, and abstracts from the official NSF API.

### What it does

- Searches NSF awards by keyword (matched against titles and abstracts), by awardee institution, or both.
- Returns funding amounts, principal investigators, funding programs, start and expiration dates, and truncated abstracts.
- Paginates automatically (25 awards per API page) until `maxItems` is reached or there are no more matches, deduplicating by award ID.
- Writes clean, flat records to a dataset plus an aggregate summary (total obligated dollars, state breakdown) to the OUTPUT record.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `keyword` | string | Search term matched against award titles and abstracts, for example "battery recycling". Provide this, `awardeeName`, or both. |
| `awardeeName` | string | Awardee institution name, for example "Stanford University". Multi-word names are matched as an exact phrase. |
| `maxItems` | integer | How many awards to return (auto-paginated, max 500). Default 25. |

Example:

```json
{
  "keyword": "battery recycling",
  "maxItems": 25
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item is one award:

```json
{
  "awardId": "2541867",
  "title": "CAREER: Autonomous AI Agents for Translational Multidisciplinary Design Optimization",
  "awardee": "Iowa State University",
  "city": "AMES",
  "state": "IA",
  "amountUsd": 549499,
  "program": "EDSE-Engineering Design and Sy",
  "piName": "Ping He",
  "startDate": "09/01/2026",
  "expDate": "08/31/2031",
  "awardedDate": "06/29/2026",
  "abstract": "This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) project supports integrated research and education focused on creating autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents...",
  "url": "https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2541867"
}
```

Abstracts are truncated to 1500 characters. The run's OUTPUT key-value record holds a summary with the query, the number of awards returned, the total obligated dollars, and a per-state breakdown.

### Pricing

Pay per result, plus standard Apify platform usage.

### Data source

The official NSF Award Search API at api.nsf.gov (no API key required). The API caps page size at 25 records and does not return a total match count, so the Actor paginates until it sees a short page or reaches `maxItems`. Dates use the API's MM/DD/YYYY format.

# Actor input Schema

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Search term matched against award titles and abstracts (for example "quantum computing", "battery recycling", "coral reef"). Provide this, an institution name, or both.

## `awardeeName` (type: `string`):

Name of the awardee institution (for example "Stanford University", "MIT"). Multi-word names are matched as an exact phrase against the awardee organization. Provide this, a keyword, or both.

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

How many awards to return. Results are paginated automatically (25 per API page) until this count is reached or there are no more matches.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keyword": "quantum computing",
  "awardeeName": "Stanford University",
  "maxItems": 25
}
```

# 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 = {
    "keyword": "battery recycling"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("agentictools/nsf-award-search").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 = { "keyword": "battery recycling" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("agentictools/nsf-award-search").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 '{
  "keyword": "battery recycling"
}' |
apify call agentictools/nsf-award-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,agentictools/nsf-award-search"
        }
    }
}

```

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/OeALVXIdeMv7N83I6/builds/104QJHlLU9R9XafpE/openapi.json