Research funding · 14 pages
Science funding & agencies
Answer-first explainers of the systems and terms behind US federal research funding — the NIH and NSF, eRA Commons and RePORTER, grant mechanisms, peer review, and public-access policy.
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All 14 science funding & agencies pages
eRA Commons
eRA Commons is the NIH electronic Research Administration system where applicants, grantees and institutions register, manage grant applications, submit progress reports and administer awards. Each investigator holds a persistent eRA Commons ID used across NIH submissions. It is the authoritative interface between researchers and NIH grants management.
DefinitionNIH RePORTER
NIH RePORTER (Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results) is the NIH public database for searching funded research projects, their publications and patents. Anyone can query it by topic, investigator, institution, funding amount or activity code to see what NIH has supported and what that research produced.
DefinitionNIH grant
An NIH grant is funding awarded by the National Institutes of Health to support biomedical and behavioural research. Grants are organised by activity codes — R (research), K (career development), F (fellowships), T (training), P (programme/centre) and U (cooperative agreements) — and move through application, peer review, advisory-council recommendation and award.
DefinitionNSF grant
An NSF grant is funding from the National Science Foundation supporting research and education across science, engineering and mathematics. Proposals are evaluated by external peer reviewers against two statutory merit-review criteria — Intellectual Merit (the potential to advance knowledge) and Broader Impacts (the potential to benefit society) — before a programme officer recommends an award.
DefinitionGrants.gov
Grants.gov is the US federal portal to find and apply for federal grant funding across agencies. It hosts a searchable catalogue of funding opportunities and standard application packages, and routes submitted applications to the awarding agency’s systems. Organisations must register, including a Unique Entity ID via SAM.gov, before they can apply.
DefinitionNotice of Funding Opportunity
A Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) — formerly called a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) — is the document announcing the availability of federal funding and its requirements. It specifies eligibility, the research scope, application instructions, review criteria, deadlines and award terms, and serves as the binding rulebook for a given competition.
DefinitionPrincipal investigator
A principal investigator (PI) is the individual responsible for the conduct of a research project or award — its scientific direction, management of personnel and budget, and compliance with the terms of the grant. At NIH the role is titled Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI), and many awards now permit multiple PIs sharing leadership.
DefinitionNIH biosketch
The NIH biosketch is the standardised CV required in NIH applications. It includes a personal statement explaining the investigator’s fit for the project, positions and honours, and up to five contributions to science with supporting publications. It can be generated through SciENcv, and is subject to page limits and a prescribed structure.
DefinitionNIH study section
An NIH study section is a Scientific Review Group of peer reviewers that evaluates the scientific merit of grant applications. Convened mainly by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), each section covers a defined scientific area, scores assigned applications against NIH criteria, and produces summary statements that guide funding institutes.
DefinitionR01 grant
The R01 grant is the NIH Research Project Grant, the original and most common NIH activity code for an independent, investigator-initiated project. It supports a discrete, defined research project led by a PI, typically for up to five years with renewable budgets, and is widely regarded as a marker of established research independence.
DefinitionSBIR / STTR
SBIR and STTR are the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programmes, funding small-business R&D — "America’s Seed Fund". Participating federal agencies set aside funds to award phased, non-dilutive grants and contracts; STTR additionally requires formal collaboration with a research institution such as a university.
DefinitionProgram officer
A program officer is the agency staff member who advises applicants and manages the programmatic aspects of awards. They guide prospective applicants on fit and priorities, help interpret review outcomes, recommend or manage funding within a portfolio, and serve as the scientific point of contact for grantees throughout the life of an award.
DefinitionNIH Public Access Policy
The NIH Public Access Policy requires that peer-reviewed papers resulting from NIH funding be made publicly available on PubMed Central. Under the updated 2024 policy — effective for papers from the end of 2025 — the accepted manuscript is made available without an embargo, replacing the earlier framework that allowed up to a 12-month delay.
DefinitionOSTP Nelson memo
The OSTP Nelson memo is the 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum, "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research", directing federal agencies to make funded publications and data freely available without embargo by the end of 2025. It updates earlier 2013 guidance that had permitted a 12-month delay.
