PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Grant

How to Cite a Grant in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a grant gives the principal investigator's last name and first name, the grant title in quotation marks and title case, the grant or project number, the funding agency, the years the grant runs (2014–20), and the link to the grant's record, such as its NIH RePORTER page, without https://. The in-text citation is the investigator's last name: (Aiken).

The format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Grant." Project no. xxxx, Funding Agency, Start Year–End Year, www.url.com.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 29, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Grants aren't something PERRLA's reference search looks up, so you add one by hand with the grant's RePORTER or NSF page open beside you. Choose Grants as the reference type.

Add each person as a Principal Investigator, or an organization as a Group Investigator. Paste the title into Grant Title/Name. Type the number with its label, like Project no. 5R01NR014855-05, in Grant Description. Type the project's first and last years in Grant Duration (Years), like 2014-2020. Then add the funder in Funding Agency and paste the grant page's link as the URL.

PERRLA puts the title in title case, names only the first investigator and et al. when there are three or more, shortens the year range the MLA way (2014–20), and drops the https:// from the link.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Principal investigator

The principal investigator takes the author's spot: last name, a comma, and first name, with any middle initial, then a period. MLA doesn't add a role label like (Principal Investigator).

Aiken, Linda H.

Two investigators: invert only the first name, then write and and the second name in normal order. Three or more: the first name, a comma, and et al. On NIH RePORTER, the principal investigators are the Contact PI/Project Leader and anyone under Other PIs. RePORTER often prints names in capitals, last name first (AIKEN, LINDA H), so retype them in normal capitalization.

Bates-Jensen, Barbara M., and Tracey Yap.

2. Grant title

Put the grant title in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case, however RePORTER or NSF prints it. A grant isn't a published work on its own, and MLA sets the titles of unpublished works in quotation marks. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

"Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes."

Keep a program name that's part of the title, like the I-Corps prefix on some NSF awards, and the colon after it.

3. Grant number

Next comes the grant number, with the label the funder uses, abbreviated: NIH calls it a project number, NSF an award number. Copy the number exactly as the record prints it, including the first digit and the year suffix on an NIH number. A comma follows it.

Project no. 5R01NR014855-05,

4. Funding agency

Name the agency that awarded the grant, spelled out, followed by a comma. For an NIH grant, that's the institute or center RePORTER lists under Administering Institutes or Centers. Don't add the university that received the money.

National Institute of Nursing Research,

5. Grant years

Give the years the grant runs, start to end, with an en dash between them. MLA shortens the second year to its last two digits when both years fall in the same century. Use the whole project period, not a single budget year.

2014–20,

RePORTER shows this as Project Start Date and Project End Date. Each year of an NIH grant has its own record, and later records usually keep the first start date, so take the years from the record you link to. A grant that's still running takes its scheduled end year.

6. URL

End with the link to the grant's public record, like its NIH RePORTER project page or its NSF award page, and a period. Leave off the https://.

reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9519047.

If the grant has no public page, end the entry after the years.

Examples

An NIH grant with one principal investigator

Linda Aiken's National Institute of Nursing Research grant for a panel study of nurse staffing, education, and patient outcomes, cited from its 2018 record on NIH RePORTER. The project period on that record runs from September 2014 to August 2020.

  • In-text citation(Aiken)
  • Narrative citationAiken's grant funds a study that …

A grant with two principal investigators

A multiple-PI grant on detecting early pressure injuries in nursing home residents. RePORTER lists Barbara Bates-Jensen as the contact PI and Tracey Yap under Other PIs, so both are named, in that order.

  • In-text citation(Bates-Jensen and Yap)
  • Narrative citationBates-Jensen and Yap are testing whether …

A grant that's still underway

A grant on labor and delivery nursing and obstetric outcomes that started in 2024 and is scheduled to end in 2028. Use the end year on the record even though it hasn't arrived yet. The A1 at the end of the number marks a resubmitted application; it's part of the number, so keep it.

  • In-text citation(Lake and Srinivas)
  • Narrative citationLake and Srinivas are studying how …

A National Science Foundation award

An NSF I-Corps award to a Texas Woman's University nursing professor for a mobile app that teaches nursing handoff. NSF calls its number an award number, and its award page gives the start and end dates (1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021).

  • In-text citation(Lee)
  • Narrative citationLee's I-Corps award supported …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a grant is the principal investigator's last name. A grant record has no page numbers, so there's no number to add, and MLA in-text citations never take the year.

  • One investigator: (Aiken)
  • Two investigators: both last names joined by and: (Bates-Jensen and Yap)
  • Three or more investigators: the first name and et al.: (Lastname et al.)
  • No investigator named: a shortened version of the grant title in quotation marks, starting with the word the entry is alphabetized by
  • Name in your sentence: leave the parentheses off: Lake and Srinivas are studying how labor and delivery nursing relates to obstetric outcomes.

It helps to say in your sentence that the source is a grant, so your reader knows the work is funded and planned, not finished and published.

Common mistakes

  • (Aiken, 2014–2020)(Aiken)That's APA. MLA in-text citations give the name, not the year, and a grant record has no page to add.
  • Aiken, L. H. (Principal Investigator).Aiken, Linda H.MLA spells out the first name and doesn't add APA's role label.
  • Aiken, Linda H. Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes.Aiken, Linda H. "Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes."A grant is an unpublished work, and MLA puts the titles of unpublished works in quotation marks, not italics.
  • "PANEL STUDY OF EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN NURSING ON PATIENT OUTCOMES.""Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes."MLA uses title case, however the funder's database prints the title. Retype capitals before you save.
  • Project no. 5R01NR014855-05, University of Pennsylvania,Project no. 5R01NR014855-05, National Institute of Nursing Research,Name the agency that funded the grant, not the university that received the money.
  • Citing the grant for the study's resultsCiting the journal article that reports the resultsA grant record describes planned work. When you're using findings, cite the published article; cite the grant only when the grant itself is your subject.

Quick checklist

  • First investigator inverted, full first name, no role label
  • Three or more investigators: the first one and et al.
  • Grant title in quotation marks and title case
  • Grant number with the funder's label, like Project no.
  • The funding agency spelled out
  • The project's years, like 2014–20, then the link without https://

Questions students ask

Do I cite a grant or the article it funded?

Usually the article. If you're using a study's findings, cite the journal article that reports them. Cite the grant itself only when you're writing about the funded project, like describing what NIH is paying for in your topic area.

How do I acknowledge grant funding for my own project in MLA?

Not in the Works Cited list. MLA's place for thanking a funder is the acknowledgments, a short section at the start of a work that names the grants or fellowships that supported it. Give the funder and the grant number there, and ask your instructor whether your capstone or thesis needs one.

Where do I find a grant's details?

For NIH grants, search NIH RePORTER (reporter.nih.gov) by investigator, title, or number. The project page has the title, the project number, the investigators, the project start and end dates, and the institute. For NSF grants, use the NSF Award Search, which lists the award number, the principal investigator, and the dates.

How do I cite a grant proposal I have a copy of?

Cite what you have. List the person or group that wrote it, the proposal's title (or a short description, like Proposal to the National Institute of Nursing Research, in plain type), and the date it was written. If the copy came from an archive or a website, add the archive or site as the container.

Why does the year range look shortened?

MLA writes a range of years in the same century with only the last two digits of the second year: 2014–20, not 2014–2020. When the years cross a century, write both in full.

What if the grant is still active?

Use the scheduled end year shown on the record, even if it's in the future: 2024–28. The format doesn't change.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, optional elements, numbers, dates, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on citing a grant proposal (author, title or description, date, and the archive or website as a container), on unpublished works (titles in quotation marks), and on giving thanks (grants belong in the acknowledgments). Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, re-checked for MLA on October 29, 2026, against the NIH RePORTER API (investigators, project numbers, titles, project start and end dates, and the administering institute for records 9519047, 10872205, and 10981418) and the NSF Awards API (award 2033334: Mikyoung Lee, 1 Aug. 2020 to 31 July 2021).

Type in a grant's details once, and PERRLA writes the MLA entry with the title cased, the years shortened, and the link trimmed.

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