Funding Acquisition: Lead vs Supporting

Funding-acquisition lead vs supporting

Under the CRediT taxonomy, the distinction between the contributor who led the funding acquisition for a research project (typically the named principal investigator on the grant) and contributors who supported but did not lead the proposal (co-investigators, named collaborators).

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 22 Aug 2026

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Within CRediT’s Funding acquisition role, the lead/supporting qualifier — formalised across all 14 CRediT roles in the NISO CRediT standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022) — distinguishes the contributor who led acquisition of financial support for a project (“Funding acquisition: lead,” typically the named principal investigator on the award) from contributors who supported the proposal without leading it (“Funding acquisition: supporting,” typically named co-investigators or collaborators who wrote specific sections).

How it differs from related terms: This applies the same qualifier mechanism documented generally under degree-of-contribution qualifier to one specific CRediT role; Conceptualization: lead vs. supporting is the same distinction applied to a different role entirely. Funding-acquisition credit is also distinct from lab leadership, which credits ongoing scientific direction of a group rather than the specific act of securing a grant.

Marking every co-investigator “Funding acquisition: equal” when in practice one person wrote and led the grant application misrepresents the contribution and defeats the purpose of the qualifier.

References

NISO CRediT Standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022
Brand et al., “Beyond authorship,” Learned Publishing (2015)

Use in your systems

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Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

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