Understanding Grant Numbers

A grant number provides unique identification for the grant. The figure below shows an example of a complete NIH grant number.

Sample Grant Number: 1 R01 CA 123456-01A1

Sample grant number and breakdown

The grant number is comprised of the following parts:

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: The code for the NIH Institute/Center (IC) associated with the grant

Serial Number: 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., an 01 support year is a new grant)

Suffix Code: An optional code used for supplements, amendments, or fellowship institutional allowances

‘A’ and related number identifies the amendment number (example: A1 = resubmission);
‘S’ and related number identifies the revision record and follows the grant year or the amendment designation to which additional funds have been awarded.
'X' and related number identifies a fellowship's institutional allowance record. Allowance designations also follow the grant year or other designation(example: AG 12345-01X1 and HD 12345-02S1X2)
'P' and related number indicates a pre-application.
D% (where % is a number) marks resubmissions and/or renewal applications that were withdrawn prior to the issuance of a summary statement at the request of the applicant and a subsequent version of that resubmission or renewal was submitted.

For more complete information on deciphering the grant number, see:

For additional information types of grant programs, access the Grants & Funding website at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_program.htm.