Division of Research
Date June 24, 2026
All News

Reminder on Acknowledging NIH-Supported Research in compliance with the Stevens Amendment

The Stevens Amendment is an active federal legislative mandate originally enacted in 1989 (Public Law 101-166, Section 511). Introduced by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), this statutory rider is attached to annual congressional appropriations bills funding the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

Under the Stevens Amendment, each publication, press release, or other public facing document (i.e., websites, social media posts, conference presentations, resource guides and RFPs) describing research supported by a DoL, DoEd, or DHHS grant or cooperative agreement must clearly state:

  1. The percentage of the total costs of the program or project financed with federal funds.
  2. The total dollar amount of federal funds allocated to the project or program.
  3. The percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program financed by non-governmental/non-federal sources (e.g., University funds, private foundations or state funds).

Example

This [project/publication/program/website, etcetera] [is/was] supported by the [federal sub-agency] of the [federal agency] as part of an award totaling $XX [insert total Notice of Grant Award (NoA) amount here] with XX percentage financed from non-federal sources. 

Requirements for NIH-Supported Research

Publications, press releases and other public facing documents must include the following three statements:

  1. A specific acknowledgment of NIH grant support, such as:

"Research reported in this [publication/press release] was supported by [name of    the Institute(s), Center, or other NIH offices] of the National Institutes of Health  under award number [specific NIH grant number(s) in this  format: R01GM987654]." 

  1. An acknowledgement of the level of NIH funding that indicates:

The percentage and dollar amounts of the total program or project costs financed with Federal money and the percentage and dollar amount of the total costs financed by nongovernmental sources.

  1. A disclaimer that says:

"The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily  represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health."

Additional NIH-specific Reminders

Attributing publications to grants that did not actually support the research does not align with NIH policy and could inadvertently result in compliance actions.

If the NIH grant only supported a specific part of the published work this should be made clear in the grant citation in the publication and in the Research Performance Progress Report.

NIH-funded investigators must accurately list their affiliations on publications to reflect where they performed the NIH-funded work rather than using their current address if it is different from the performance site.

Calculate percentages based on the entire Project Segment (“project period”) – use the total direct and indirect costs for the current approved competitive segment.

Additional NIH instructions for acknowledging federal support