Information on funded grants can be a valuable source of intelligence when compiling a grant proposal, providing insight into the priorities of the funding agency as well as larger research trends. Reviewing past award recipients can also help researchers identify potential collaborators. Below is a list of federal funding agency award databases and tips for searching them effectively.

ARPA-E

Department of Defense

  • DoD Grant Awards Search (December 2014-Present)
    • Keyword search is available at the top of the page, and filters such as year, researcher, and organization are on the left sidebar
    • Specific branches and offices of DoD can be selected using the funder filter
    • DoD Grant Awards Search is built on the Dimensions database, which offers search guidance
    • The research categories are created and assigned by Dimensions, not DoD

Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences

  • Funded Research Grants and Contracts (2002-Present)
    • There is a keyword search with options to restrict the search to particular fields such as title and program
    • You can also browse funded programs by selecting an organization, PI, program, or category from the dropdown lists in the Additional Search Options section

Department of Energy Office of Science

  • Portfolio Analysis and Management System (PAMS) Award Search (1985-Present)
    • Many search fields include "like," for example, "Title like." This means that you can enter a partial title.
    • Clicking the arrow next to "Advanced Search Parameters" opens a menu with additional search options. On the lists with check boxes, like Award Type, multiple options can be selected.
    • On the search results page, you can export a spreadsheet by clicking the small green Excel logo (X) at the very bottom of the page
    • Public abstracts may not be available for awards prior to 2014

Environmental Protection Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Endowment for the Arts

  • Grants Search (1998-Present)
    • An FAQ for the Grants Search is linked at the top of the page
    • Search results include a short description of the purpose of the grant and can be exported to a spreadsheet or PDF
    • Grant announcements by year, individual award winners, and lists of past reviewers are available on the Recent Grants page

National Endowment for the Humanities

  • Award Search (1966-Present)
    • NEH maintains an Award Search FAQ
    • The fields list includes more general parent terms like History: All (which includes all history subcategories) and narrower child terms like History: Public History
    • In the Special Searches dropdown list, you can limit the search to awards with particular products like exhibitions or computer programs, awards with associated white papers (which are linked on the award detail page), or awards that won prizes

National Institutes of Health

  • NIH RePORTER (1993-Present)
    • NIH maintains a RePORTER FAQ (it starts about halfway down the page)
    • RePORTER includes grants awarded by AHRQ, CDC, HRSA, FDA, and VA, in addition to all NIH institutes and centers
    • The default setting searches for active projects only. In the Fiscal Year dropdown, you can select a specific year or "All FY" to search all available results
    • The "additional fields" option in the Advanced Projects Search allows you to limit a keyword search to the title, project terms (which are developed through automated text mining), or abstract
    • In the Project Number/Application ID field, you can search for activity codes such as RO1

National Science Foundation

  • NSF Award Search (1970-Present)
    • The default is a simple keyword search across multiple fields, listed on this help page. Be sure to check the correct box for active or expired awards.
    • There is also an advanced search, with an accompanying help page. Clicking the magnifying glass icons next to fields in the Advanced Search screen will open a popup window to perform a preliminary lookup, either by searching or browsing alphabetically. Once you have found your desired term on the list, click OK to return to the Advanced Search screen and click Search. This process will retrieve the most exact search results.
      • For example, to look up awards for a cross-directorate program like CAREER, click the magnifying glass icon next to the Reference Code field. Type "career*" to find results that start with "Career" and then select "Career: Faculty Early Car Dev," reference code 1045.