NIH External Directory Service
To order or inquire about this service, please contact the NIH IT Service Desk.
Service Hours: 24 hours per day, 7 days per week
The NIH External Directory Service allows non-NIH users to have secure and authenticated access to NIH data. Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH sponsor external researchers by requesting "projects" via the Web and then working with CIT to provide an account with specific permissions and tracking of service usage.
Many researchers outside of NIH might already be affiliated with entities that have a "federated" relationship with NIH, or they might desire large-scale or long-term collaboration. In those cases, using NIH Enterprise Authentication Services (NIH Login) for federated identity management will be a better option. Please see the FAQs below for more information.
This service is in the process of moving to a fee-for-service model.
Customer Benefits
The NIH External Directory Service enables the NIH community to collaborate successfully with external researchers and scientists.
Customer Market
This service is available to all NIH customers and to other customers outside of NIH.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do the NIH External Directory and NIH Enterprise Authentication Services (NIH Login, formerly iTrust) work together?
A: The NIH External Directory is where a separate account is created for each individual external NIH collaborator. NIH External is intended as a solution for a short-term or individual collaboration, or to suffice until the collaborator’s institution, university, or college has integrated their directory with NIH Login. Login supports an easy and secure way to authenticate users and control access to sensitive data on a large scale.
Q: We have a few researchers who need to work with NIH right now, but our group will be much larger in the next fiscal year. Do we want NIH External or NIH Login (formerly iTrust)?
A: Actually, you may be best served by using both. You can apply for an NIH External Directory project for your researchers who need access now, and start working with CIT to use NIH Login to manage federated identity for your researchers' institution(s) going forward. Please contact the NIH IT Service Desk for assistance with these processes.
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