NIH RePORTER

🚀 NIH RePORTER MCP Server

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

Check out the related blog post here.

✨ Features

• Search for NIH-funded research projects using various criteria:
  • Fiscal year
  • Principal investigator name
  • Institution details (name, state, city, type, department)
  • Funding amount
  • Status of response to COVID-19
  • Funding mechanism
  • Institute/Center code
  • RCDC terms
  • Date range
• Search for publications related to NIH projects
• Combine search functions to search for projects and publications simultaneously
• Detailed information on projects and publications, including summaries
• Configurable result limits

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

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

Steps

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  # Use `.venv\Scripts\activate` on Windows

3. Install dependencies using UV:

uv pip install -e .

💻 Usage Examples

Basic Usage

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

• search_projects: Search for NIH-funded research projects
• search_publications: Search for publications related to NIH projects
• search_combined: Combine searches to search for projects and publications simultaneously
• test_connection: Test the API connection

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

• Claude Desktop
• Cursor
• Other MCP-enabled tools

Example Configuration for 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"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Search results will be returned in a structured format, containing project details, including:

• Project title and summary
• Principal investigator information
• Institution details
• Funding information
• Project dates and status

🐞 Debugging

When the MCP is running in a client (e.g., Claude Desktop), a log file will be created in the root folder. If you encounter any issues, please check this log file.

🔧 Technical Details

Technologies Used

The project uses the following technologies:

• httpx for asynchronous HTTP requests
• mcp to implement the Mission Control Protocol
• python-dotenv to manage environment variables
• uv for dependency management

Logging

Logs are written to the mcp-nih-reporter.log file in the project root directory. By default, the log level is set to INFO.

🤝 Contribution

If you would like to contribute to this project, please follow the standard open-source contribution process and submit your changes via pull requests or issues.

📄 License

[Insert license information here]

📞 Contact

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