NIH RePORTER MCP

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for chatting with NIH RePORTER. Search for NIH-funded research projects and publications in a conversational manner. Accompanying blog post here.

Features

• Search NIH-funded research projects with various criteria:
  • Fiscal years
  • Principal Investigator names
  • Organization details (name, state, city, type, department)
  • Funding amounts
  • COVID-19 response status
  • Funding mechanism
  • Institute/Center codes
  • RCDC terms
  • Date ranges
• Search publications associated with NIH projects
• Combined search functionality for both projects and publications
• Detailed project and publication information including abstracts
• Configurable result limits

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12 or higher
• UV package manager (recommended for faster dependency installation)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd mcp-nih-reporter

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows, use `.venvScriptsactivate`

3. Install dependencies using UV:

uv pip install -e .

Usage

This MCP server provides access to the NIH RePORTER API through several tools:

• search_projects: Search for NIH-funded research projects
• search_publications: Search for publications associated with NIH projects
• search_combined: Combined search for both projects and publications
• test_connection: Test the API connection

You can use this MCP with any MCP-compatible client, such as:

• Claude Desktop
• Cursor
• Other MCP-enabled tools

Example claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
	 "nih-reporter": {
	      "command": "<fully qualified path to>/uv",
	      "args": [
	        "run",
	        "--with",
	        "mcp[cli]",
	        "mcp",
	        "run",
	        "<fully qualified path to>/mcp-nih-reporter/mcp-nih-reporter.py"
	      ]
	    }
  }
}

The search results will be returned in a structured format containing project details including:

• Project title and abstract
• Principal Investigator information
• Organization details
• Funding information
• Project dates and status

Debugging

A log file will be created in the root folder when the MCP attempts to run in a client (e.g. Claude Desktop). Check there if you’re having trouble.

Development

The project uses:

• httpx for async HTTP requests
• mcp for the Mission Control Protocol implementation
• python-dotenv for environment variable management
• uv for dependency management

Logging

Logs are written to mcp-nih-reporter.log in the project root directory. The logging level is set to INFO by default.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate and follow the existing code style.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.