The NIH recently announced their official Implementation of Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support for Due Dates on or after January 25, 2026. Applications, RPPRs, prior approval requests and JIT submissions on or after January 25, 2026 must use the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.
- SciENcv must be used to complete and certify the Common Forms.
- Researchers must have their ORCID iDs on the forms.
- Make sure you have your ORCID and eRA Commons accounts connected to SciENcv. See the ORCID BeckerGuide for instructions.
- Make sure you have assigned team member(s) to serve as your SciENcv delegate(s). See this blog post for screenshots of how to assign a delegate.
Most of the content on the current NIH Biosketch will be retained but has been renamed or “moved” to the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement Form.
- The page limit has been replaced with character count limits on the Personal Statement and Contributions to Science.
- If you wish to provide Products on the NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form, those products must be on your My Bibliography or your ORICD record to use in SciENcv.
- The Biographical Sketch Common Form and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement are completed in the same user interface. There is a single certification to certify both forms and a single PDF containing both forms for submission.
- There is no upload option for the Biographical Sketch Common Form at this time.
Please also see the Notable changes highlighted by the NIH:
| Current NIH Biosketch for submission dates on or before January 24, 2026 | Biographical Sketch Common Form for submission dates on or after January 25, 2026 | NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement for submission dates on or after January 25, 2026 |
| Education/Training | Professional Preparation | Not Applicable |
| A. Personal Statement: Narrative and 4 product citations. | Products: Products Most Closely Related to the Proposed Project, limit 5 citations. | Personal Statement: No citations allowed. Can provide narrative for Personal Statement including information on the Products Most Closely Related to the Proposed Project, cited in the Products section of the Biographical Sketch Common Form. Field is limited to 3,500 characters. |
| B. Positions, Scientific Appointments and Honors | Appointments and Positions: Must only identify all domestic and foreign professional appointments and positions outside of the primary organization for a period up to three years from the date the applicant submits the application to the agency for funding consideration. | Honors: Limited to no more than 15 entries. |
| C. Contributions to Science: Up to 5 narrative contribution descriptions, each allowed to include citations for up to 4 products. | Products: Can provide up to 5 other significant products that highlight the senior/key person’s Contributions to Science. The NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement will provide the opportunity to describe these contributions in more depth. | Contributions to Science: No citations allowed. Can provide up to 5 narrative contributions to science. Each entry is limited up to 2,000 characters. You may refer to products listed in the Other Significant Products section of your Biographical Sketch Common Form that are relevant to the contributions described in this section. |
For a walkthrough of the changes to the NIH Biosketch and SciENcv, please see WashU Box for recordings and slides from our January 9, 2026 session.
NIH Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form
The NIH Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form has an XML upload option to reduce manual entry. WashU’s RADAR project enables researchers and their delegates to take advantage of this option. Please reach out to your departmental research administrator for more information about RADAR and SciENcv. See Resources section for more information.
Certification:
“NIH will require certification from each individual (not their delegate) of their own form(s) in SciENcv acknowledging information is: 1) current, accurate, and complete and 2) at time of submission, they are not a party to a malign foreign talent recruitment program.”
Documents can only be downloaded from SciENcv in pdf format. Delegates can assist researchers in completing the forms, but they cannot certify the forms. Once certified, the downloaded pdf file can be renamed but no other changes to the file can be made. If any changes are needed, the researcher or their delegate must make the change in SciENcv, and the documents must be re-certified and downloaded again. See also: NIH FAQ: What actions are allowed after downloading a certified PDF file from SciENcv?
Stay tuned to Research News and Becker Library for more information about the upcoming changes.
Resources:
NIH Forms Directory: Biographical Sketch Common Form
NIH Forms Directory: Biographical Sketch Supplement
NIH Forms Directory: Current and Pending (Other) Support (CPOS) Common Form
WashU OVCR: Prepare for NIH Moving to Common Forms
WashU OVCR: Slide deck on key changes for faculty
STAR Hot Topic: Current and Pending (Other) Support slides and recording
Becker Library Session January 9, 2026: NIH Biosketch and SciENcv – slides and recording