NIH’s Adoption of Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support by May 25, 2025

As detailed in NIH Notice NOT-OD-24-163, NIH has adopted Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support to be used with all applications and Research Performance Progress Report(s) (RPPRs) by May 25, 2025.

NIH Common Forms Implementation

NIH will implement the Common Forms without change to any collection fields. However, in accordance with NIH’s Peer Review Regulations at 42 Code of Federal Regulations Part 52h, NIH currently plans to continue collecting three required agency specific data elements (i.e., Personal Statement, Contributions to Science, and Honors) to assess qualifications. These data elements will be collected separately from the Common Forms on a new NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.

A high-level summary of NIH specific updates are as follows:

General Information

  • NIH will require the use of Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) to complete Common Forms (i.e., Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support) and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement to produce digitally certified PDF(s) for use in application submission.
  • NIH will require all Senior/Key Personnel to enter their ORCID ID into SciENcv in the Persistent Identifier (PID) section of the Common Forms.
    • NIH will require all Senior/Key Personnel to link their ORCID ID to their eRA Commons Personal Profile. For information on linking an ORCID ID to the eRA Commons Personal Profile see the ORCID ID topic in the eRA Commons online help.

Biographical Sketch

  • NIH will no longer accept the NIH Biographical Sketch format page.
  • NIH will require the use of the Common Form for Biographical Sketch.
  • NIH will require the use of a new NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement to collect the “Personal Statement,” “Contributions to Science,” and “Honors” statements.

Current and Pending (Other) Support

  • NIH will no longer accept the NIH Other Support format page.
  • NIH will require the use of the Common Form for Current and Pending (Other) Support.

NIH Common Forms Timeline

If your intended application due date or RPPR submission is?You must…
On or before May 24, 2025, including:
• Applications submitted for due dates on or before May 24, 2025.
• Applications submitted under NIH Late Policy 2-week window of consideration for intended due dates on or before May 24, 2025.
• Applications submitted by June 1, 2025, under NIH Continuous Submission Policy for the May 7, 2025, AIDS intended due date.
Continue using the current NIH Biosketch and Other Support format pages for applications, Just-in-Time (JIT), and RPPRs.
On or after May 25, 2025, including:
• Applications submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2025.
• All application types (New, Resubmission, Renewal, Revision).
• Applications submitted early for intended due dates on or after May 25, 2025.		Use the Common Forms (i.e., Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support) and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement along with the updated instructions for applications, JIT and RPPRs.

Failure to use the required forms or format pages may cause NIH to withdraw your application from consideration.

Please review the NIH Notice NOT-OD-24-163 for complete information on the upcoming changes, including availability of Commons Forms for NIH and links to Resources.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please contact your Sponsored Programs Pre-Award Officer.

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