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

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

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

1. 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.