# NIH RePORTER Scraper (`parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes NIH RePORTER research projects by keyword, agency, or fiscal year. Returns each project as a flat row with title, abstract, PI, funding, and more.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Education, Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $6.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

[![ParseForge](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/main/banner.jpg)](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp)

### 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:

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

A larger pull:

```json
{
 "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](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

### Run it

1. [Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).
2. Open the [NIH RePORTER Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper?fpr=vmoqkp).
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](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2) (`run-sync-get-dataset-items`) or the [ApifyClient](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js) 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:

```bash
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. |

### Related actors

Browse the full [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge?fpr=vmoqkp) 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.

# Actor input Schema

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

Search keyword for NIH research projects (searches in terms field)

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

How many research projects to collect per run.

## `fiscalYear` (type: `integer`):

Fiscal year to search for projects

## `agencyCode` (type: `string`):

Optional NIH agency code filter (e.g., 'NCI', 'NIMH', 'NIAID')

## `isActive` (type: `boolean`):

Only return currently active projects

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keyword": "cancer",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "fiscalYear": 2024,
  "isActive": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (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 = {
    "keyword": "cancer",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "fiscalYear": 2024
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper").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": "cancer",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "fiscalYear": 2024,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper").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": "cancer",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "fiscalYear": 2024
}' |
apify call parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parseforge/nih-reporter-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

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/i8GiQb7auR6M0wCF0/builds/wHiE4GRvQMjcS3eT6/openapi.json