The National Institutes of Health (NIH) uses a standard format when assigning award numbers. Understanding the different components of an award number can help investigators and administrators quickly identify important details about an award.
The below table shows the breakdown for the example award 1 R01 CA 123456-01AI.
Application Type: Indicates the type of application (e.g., new, renewal, non-competing, etc.)
Activity Code: Represents the specific category of support (e.g., research projects, fellowships, etc.)
Institute/Center Code: Identifies the code for the NIH Institute/Center (IC) associated with the grant (e.g,; National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging, etc.)
Serial Number: Lists the unique number - assigned by the NIH Center for Scientific Research (CSR) - identifying the specific application
Support Year: Indicates the current year of support (e.g., a 01 support year is a new grant)
Suffix (Extension) Code: Indicates an optional code used for supplements, amendments, or fellowship institutional allowances
More details about each NIH award number component, including definitions for all acronyms, can be found in the NIH resource: “Deciphering NIH Application/Grant Numbers”.