If you receive NIH grant support, you must acknowledge federal funding when describing your project in products such as research publications, press releases, requests for proposals, bid invitations, and other documents describing projects or programs funded in whole or in part with federal funding.
One reason for the requirement is that NIH staff use award citations to evaluate the impact of grant funding on scientific progress over time. Similarly, peer reviewers rely on award citations to help assess award productivity.
The requirement is defined in Section 4.2.1 Acknowledgement of Federal Funding of the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
To comply with the policy, you need to include the following information when appropriate:
- A specific acknowledgement of NIH grant support (including a grant number in the correct format).
- The percentage and dollar amount of the total program or project costs financed with federal money.
- For programs that require cost sharing, the percentage and dollar amount of the total costs financed by nongovernmental sources.
- A disclaimer, as specified in Section 8.2.1 Rights in Data (Publication and Copyrighting) of the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Find example citations on NIH’s Communicating and Acknowledging Federal Funding page.
If you now feel inclined to acknowledge federal funding as often as possible, take note: Citing an award that didn’t actually contribute to a research project is just as problematic as failing to cite an award that ought to have been listed. NIH and the public depend on accurate citations to correctly assess the outcomes of NIH awards.
On a Related Note
In addition to acknowledging federal funding, you must also comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, which requires 1) submitting final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to PubMed Central (PMC) upon acceptance for publication and 2) citing PMC identification numbers (PMCIDs) in NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports.
For more information, read our Public Access of Publications SOP.