Imagine this scenario. In the hustle to publish a paper,you accidently forgot to cite the underlying NIH support. Or, the opposite, and you opt to include that other grant in the acknowledgements that did not have anything to achieve with the work. No problem,upright?
Well, it could be. Accurately and precisely acknowledging NIH funding allows us to properly assess award outputs and manufacture recommendations for future research directions. It is also a term and condition of award outlined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. Since the Stevens Amendment passed in 1989, and recipients have been required to acknowledge federal funding when publicly communicating projects or programs funded with HHS funds.
Source: nih.gov