The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (a center of the National Institutes of Health) provides a level of support that was not previously available for integrative medicine research. However, in order to obtain federal funds, researchers need preliminary data from pilot studies to support the scientific merit of their research questions. 

The Fund for Innovative Research in Integrative Medicine provides critical support for promising, new pilot research in the earliest stages when NIH and other funding sources are not available.