NIH RePORTER MCP server

The NIH RePORTER MCP server enables conversational interaction with NIH's research database. It allows you to search for NIH-funded research projects and related publications through a natural language interface compatible with Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients like Claude Desktop or Cursor.

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 `.venv\Scripts\activate`
   

3. Install dependencies using UV:

   uv pip install -e .
   

Usage

The MCP server provides several tools for accessing the NIH RePORTER API:

• 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

Configuration

To use this MCP server with Claude Desktop, add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "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"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Search Results

When you perform a search, results will be returned in a structured format containing:

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

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, check the log file (mcp-nih-reporter.log) created in the root folder when the MCP server runs. This log contains detailed information about the server's operation and any errors that might occur.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "nih-reporter" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","--with","mcp[cli]","mcp","run","mcp-nih-reporter/mcp-nih-reporter.py"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "nih-reporter": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "--with",
                "mcp[cli]",
                "mcp",
                "run",
                "mcp-nih-reporter/mcp-nih-reporter.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "nih-reporter": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "--with",
                "mcp[cli]",
                "mcp",
                "run",
                "mcp-nih-reporter/mcp-nih-reporter.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect