Communicating and Acknowledging Federal Funding

Publicizing the outcomes of NIH-funded projects and communicating the role of NIH support in biomedical research improves public understanding of how we, the biomedical research community as a whole, are working to improve human health.

This important information for researchers and public information officers (PIOs) describes how to correctly acknowledge NIH in your presentations, papers, posters, and press releases.

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Requirements for Acknowledging NIH-Supported Research

The NIH grants policy statement outlines requirements for acknowledging Federal funding in the following products when describing projects or programs funded in whole or in part with NIH funds:

  • research publications
  • press releases and other public statements
  • other publications or documents about research that is funded by NIH
  • requests for proposals and bid invitations
  • and other documents describing projects or programs funded in whole or in part with Federal money

These types of products must include the following three statements:

  1. A specific acknowledgment of NIH grant support, such as:
    "Research reported in this [publication/press release] was supported by [name of the Institute(s), Center, or other NIH offices] of the National Institutes of Health under award number [specific NIH grant number(s) in this format: R01GM987654]." (If you have more than one grant, only cite the grant(s) that supported the research described in the article or presentation.)
  2. An acknowledgement of the level of NIH funding that indicates:
    1. the percentage and dollar amounts of the total program or project costs financed with Federal money and
    2. the percentage and dollar amount of the total costs financed by nongovernmental sources.
  3. A disclaimer that says:
    "The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health."

    NIH communicates this requirement to its grantees in the NIH notice of award, and the NIH Grants Policy Statement (Sections 4.2 and 8.2.1).

    NIH also encourages grantees who have used or generated HeLa cell whole genome sequence data to acknowledge Henrietta Lacks and her family.

Tips for When to Acknowledge NIH Funding

Recipients should only acknowledge NIH awards on publications and other statements when the activities that contributed to that publication:

When considering whether acknowledgement is necessary, ask yourself:

  • Did the personnel activity supported by the award contribute to the publication?
  • Did the award support the conduct of experiments or the analysis of data that contributed to the publication?
  • Is there a clear and apparent link between the work described in the publication with the aims and objectives of the grant?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, cite the appropriate NIH support.

Proper Grant Number Format

The proper grant number format for acknowledging NIH funding is: R01GM987654. (activity code, institute/center code, and six digit serial number including leading zeros)

Information for Researchers

Citing the grant number in the correct format improves NIH information resources such as PubMed, PubMed Central, and RePORTER.

Please also be aware that, in addition to this requirement to acknowledge Federal funding as described above, NIH also requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication. Please visit the NIH Public Access Policy page for more information about these requirements.

Information for Public Information Officers

NIH wants to work with you in broadly sharing the scientific advances of your researchers follow these steps when publicizing NIH-supported research.

When writing a press release

The specific acknowledgement and disclaimer statements mentioned above must be included in your press release text. This can be placed in the footer of the release, but we also encourage mentioning NIH early in the text of your press release.

Here are a few examples:

".... This study performed at the University of X, funded by the National Institutes of Health, reveals that.... "
".... , said University of X professor of medicine Jane Doe, whose research is supported by the National Institutes of Health"


When finalizing your press releaseacknowledge screen shot

NIH requests that, prior to issuing a press release, public information officers get in touch with the funding NIH institute or center (IC) in advance, to allow for coordination.

Please visit the NIH media contacts directory or email [email protected] for help in identifying the appropriate NIH contact.

Universities using EurekAlert! or Newswise can include the NIH grant number when submitting releases, and this will automatically link your press release to the grant record in RePORTER, a comprehensive searchable public database of NIH grants.
Following a project search on REPORTER, users can then access press releases related to their search results in the "News & More" tab.

PIOs that do not use EurekAlert! or Newswise can contact NIH for help in linking their press release to grant records on RePORTER.

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Don't forget: using the proper grant number format is critical for linking to the correct NIH grant record!

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This page last updated on: August 16, 2024
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