Current Research Information System (CRIS)

The Current Research Information System (CRIS) provides documentation and reporting for ongoing agricultural, food science, human nutrition, and forestry research, education and extension activities for the United States Department of Agriculture, with a focus on the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant programs. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in NIFA-administered grant programs, includingSmall Business Innovation Research, and Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Planning, Accountability, & Reporting Staff office is responsible for maintaining CRIS. 

CRIS was authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture in 1966 to document the publicly-funded activities of the USDA/State agricultural and forestry research system. The system has expanded to include a number of education, extension and integrated activities. Most CRIS data is available to the public through a number of web sites.

CRIS projects relating to human nutrition are provided annually to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for inclusion in the Human Nutrition Research and Information Management database (HNRIM). In CRIS, these projects are designated as the subfile, "HNRIMS." Updates occur annually; therefore, all human nutrition projects in CRIS may not yet be identified for inclusion in the HNRIMS subfile.