NIH Biosketches with SciENcv

Quick steps to take and confirm before you create your biosketch.

• Confirm your submission deadline is on or after January 25, 2026.
  The Common Form should only be used for submissions after that date. If submitting before, researchers can choose to use SciENcv (select correct format) or complete the form in another platform (e.g., Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat).
• Connect your eRA Commons.
  If correctly linked, your eRA Commons account will be listed in Account Settings -> Linked Accounts. If not, see instructions for linking eRA Commons and SciENcv.
• Connect your ORCID.
  If correctly linked, your ORCID number will appear beneath your name and title in the My Profile section. If not, see instructions for linking ORCID and SciENcv.
• Update your ORCID profile.
  SciENcv will automatically pull in ORCID's education and employment history and allow you to select research output (publications, presentations, etc.) that have been added in ORCID. Reviewers will have access to your ORCID profile. See the ORCID Research Guide for more information.

SciENcv will automatically pull in professional preparation (i.e., education and training) and appointments and positions (i.e., job experience)and load it into the biosketch.

However, you have full control to:

• Add an item that was not including in ORCID (use + Add Professional Preparation or + Add Appointment/Position button)
• Edit an entry to correct an issue (use pen icon in Edit column next to each entry)
• Delete entries entire if they are not relevant to the position in the project (use trash can icon in the Delete column next to each entry)

Unlike previous formats, the Common Form consolidates citations into a single section (C. Products), including:

• publications, conference papers, and presentations;
• website(s) or other Internet site(s);
• technologies or techniques;
• inventions, patents, patent applications, and/or licenses; and
• other products, such as data, databases, or datasets, physical collections, audio or video products, software, models, educational aids or curricula, instruments or equipment, research material, interventions (e.g., clinical or educational), or new business creation.

Applicants can select up five products closely related to the proposed project and five significant products that otherwise highlight their contribution to science. Products cannot be listed in both categories.

To choose products, click on the Select Related Products or Select Other Products buttons. SciENcv will pull from two locations: ORCID and MyBibliography, MyNCBI's built-in bibliography manager. Select an item by click on its checkbox then choosing Continue.

The NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement section includes the primary narrative portions of the biosketch, as well as an Honors section.

A. Personal Statement

Briefly describe why you are well-suited for your role(s) in this project. Relevant factors may include: aspects of your training; your previous experimental work on this specific topic or related topics; your technical expertise; your collaborators or scientific environment; and/or your past performance in this or related fields, including ongoing and completed research projects from the past three years that you want to highlight.

This text (max. 3,500 characters) is to be included in a single entry. Click the Add Personal Statement button to open a text field, then Save when finished. You can add text beyond the 3,500 characters, but the box will not save until you are back beneath the character limit.

B. Honor

Covers relevant academic and professional activities and honors, including scholarships/fellowships for students and licensures and specialty board certifications for clinicians. This section is not brought over from ORCID. Up to 15 items can be add via the Add Honor button.

C. Contributions to Science

Briefly describe up to five of your most significant contributions to science. You may reference up to five products listed in the Other Significant Products section of your Biographical Sketch Common Form that are relevant to the contributions described in this section. There is no specific format for referencing the products in this section, however, it is recommended to refer to the title, use the author’s last name, publication, and/or year of publication for ease of reference. Do not provide citations on the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.

Create a contribution by the + Add Another Contribution to Science button, then clicking on the Save button for each item. Each contribution can be edited or deleted individually, and the order of the contributions can be adjusted with the Up and Down buttons next to each contribution.

All biosketches will now be certified directly in SciENcv, with the certified version then downloaded as a PDF and attached in the application. 

Until the Common Form is officially implemented on January 25, 2026, the Download PDF button has been disabled to prevent applicants from accidentally submitting the incorrect form. A watermarked draft version is currently downloadable.

This section will be updated once the certification is live.