Skip to main content

Overview: What NCCIH Funds

On This Page

What is NCCIH?

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is one of the 27 Institutes and Centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

View NCCIH's mission

What does NCCIH fund?

NCCIH funds:

  • Scientific research on complementary and integrative health.
  • Training of researchers. Find out about training opportunities.

In Fiscal Year 2018, NCCIH’s success rate for research project grants was 20.3%. The success rate is defined as the total number of competing applications funded divided by the total number of competing applications reviewed.

To better understand our goals and priorities, review:

What NCCIH Funds wheel graphic. Symptom Management, Health and Well-Being; Whole Person, Clinical Effects, Implementation, Safety, Biological Effects; Psychological Approaches, Nutritional Approaches, Physical Approaches; What NCCIH Studies.

Note: NCCIH does not support the development or delivery of clinical practice other than as a component of funded research.

How does NCCIH make funding decisions?

We only award funding in response to grant applications sent to NIH.

NCCIH, like other NIH Institutes and Centers, accepts investigator-initiated applications that are based on ideas formulated by the applicant. Researchers may refer to Types of Grants and Active Funding Announcements to find grant opportunities that may be appropriate for them.

Scientific review groups at the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) or NCCIH Special Emphasis Panels provide peer review by assessing the scientific merit of all applications. The funding process is competitive. Applications with the best ratings are considered for funding.

The Funding Strategy explains how NCCIH funds applications.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 minute per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to: NIH, Project Clearance Branch, 6705 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7974, Bethesda, MD 20892-7974, ATTN: PRA (0925-0648). Do not return the completed form to this address.