NSF Biosketch (SciENcv)

The Biographical Sketch that a proposer submits for NSF senior/key personnel counts as an NSF Biosketch (SciENcv) only when it is generated inside SciENcv using NSF's Biographical Sketch module and follows the NSPM-33 Common Form structure (Identifying Information, Organization and Location, Professional Preparation, Appointments and Positions, Products, Certification) -- a hand-typed PDF built outside SciENcv is no longer an accepted substitute for proposals subject to the current PAPPG.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 17 Jul 2026

Worked examples

Is an instance

A PI creates a SciENcv profile, links their ORCID iD to auto-populate publications and appointments, selects "NSF Biographical Sketch" as the document type, completes the Products and Appointments and Positions sections, and exports the resulting digitally certified PDF to upload as the Biographical Sketch(es) Single Copy Document in Research.gov -- this is a compliant NSF Biosketch (SciENcv).

Is an instance

The same PI, within the same SciENcv profile, generates a second document -- "NSF Current and Pending (Other) Support" -- listing active and pending projects, funding sources, and committed person-months, and uploads that separately generated PDF as the Current and Pending (Other) Support Single Copy Document for the same proposal.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

A biographical sketch typed directly into NSF's old fillable-PDF template rather than generated in SciENcv -- this format stopped being accepted for new proposals once SciENcv use became mandatory (proposals submitted or due on or after October 23, 2023) and is not a valid NSF Biosketch (SciENcv) regardless of how closely it matches the required content.

Not an instance

The Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) document, prepared on NSF's required .xlsx spreadsheet template and uploaded directly to Research.gov -- COA is a mandatory senior/key-personnel document submitted alongside the Biosketch and Current and Pending Support, but it is explicitly NOT prepared in SciENcv, so it does not qualify as an instance of this term.

Not an instance

An NIH-format biosketch (personal statement, positions and honors, contributions to science) submitted to NSF -- even though both agencies now use SciENcv, each agency's document is generated under a distinct, agency-specific SciENcv module with its own required fields and certification language, so one agency's output is not an accepted substitute for the other's.

An NSF Biosketch (SciENcv) is the Biographical Sketch that the U.S. National Science Foundation requires every senior/key person on a proposal to prepare using SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae) rather than a manually typed document. NSF and the National Institutes of Health jointly operate SciENcv as a shared, web-based authoring tool: a researcher builds one profile, pulls in publications and career data (including via an ORCID iD link), and then generates agency-specific, digitally certified PDF output for whichever funder’s format is needed — NSF’s Biographical Sketch, NSF’s Current and Pending (Other) Support, or the equivalent NIH documents, from the same underlying data.

The current mandate, and when it took effect

NSF’s own guidance states the requirement in plain terms: “Proposers must use SciENcv to prepare their biographical sketches for proposals to NSF” and, separately, “Proposers must use SciENcv to prepare their Current and Pending (Other) Support information for proposals to NSF.” This did not happen all at once:

January 30, 2023 — revised Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support formats, aligned with the new NSPM-33 Common Forms, became available for proposals submitted or due on or after this date (PAPPG NSF 23-1, Chapter II.D.2.h). At this point SciENcv was one accepted way to produce the documents, alongside an NSF fillable PDF.
October 23, 2023 — SciENcv became mandatory for both the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support. The fillable-PDF alternative was retired; Research.gov stopped accepting anything else for new proposals from this date forward.
May 20, 2024 — a further format revision (v.2024-1) took effect, most notably removing Synergistic Activities from the Biographical Sketch and moving it into its own one-page document, which is uploaded separately and is not generated in SciENcv.

What the SciENcv-generated form actually contains

Because NSF’s Biographical Sketch is built on the NSPM-33 Common Form for the Biographical Sketch, its structure looks materially different from the pre-2023 NSF format and from the older NIH narrative biosketch alike. The Common Form has six parts:

Identifying Information — name and persistent identifier (ORCID iD) of the senior/key person, plus current position title.
Organization and Location — the individual’s primary organization and its location.
Professional Preparation — education and training, including postdoctoral work, in reverse chronological order.
Appointments and Positions — domestic and foreign academic, professional, and institutional roles, in reverse chronological order.
Products — up to five products most closely related to the proposed project, and up to five other significant products (publications, patents, software, datasets, or other citable outputs), with no page or character limit imposed on this section.
Certification — the individual attests the information is current, accurate, and complete.

There is no “Personal Statement” section and no narrative “Contributions to Science” essay — both are specific to the pre-2026 NIH-style biosketch and were never part of NSF’s format even before the Common Form standardization.

Current and Pending (Other) Support: the companion document

NSF requires a separate Current and Pending (Other) Support disclosure for every senior/key person, also generated in SciENcv under the same mandatory-use rule and the same October 23, 2023 effective date. It lists each project’s title, support status, funding source, performance location, timeline, award amount, committed person-months, objectives, and any overlap with the proposed project, and requires the same accuracy certification as the Biographical Sketch. Both documents are part of NSF’s broader implementation of NSPM-33 — the 2021 national security presidential memorandum that directed federal research-funding agencies to standardize researcher disclosure requirements to reduce administrative burden while improving research-security oversight.

What is submitted alongside it, but is not SciENcv-generated

Not every required senior/key-personnel document goes through SciENcv. NSF also requires:

Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) — prepared on NSF’s own required .xlsx spreadsheet template and uploaded directly to Research.gov. NSF’s guidance is explicit that the content and format of this template must not be altered.
Synergistic Activities — as of May 20, 2024, a standalone one-page document (up to five examples of broader-impact activity), uploaded as its own PDF and not generated inside SciENcv.

A proposal package can therefore legitimately contain two SciENcv-generated documents (Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending Support) alongside two documents that are required but explicitly NOT produced in SciENcv (COA, Synergistic Activities) — conflating the two is a common preparation error.

How this differs from the NIH biosketch

NSF and NIH now both mandate SciENcv, but they got there on different timelines, and the documents remain agency-distinct rather than interchangeable:

NSF moved first. SciENcv became mandatory for NSF’s Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending Support on October 23, 2023.
NIH moved later, and enforced it more gradually. NIH’s own Common Forms requirement (covering the Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending [Other] Support, and a separate NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement) took effect for due dates on or after January 25, 2026 (NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-018). NIH initially ran system validations as warnings rather than hard rejections; that leniency period was extended once (NOT-OD-26-033, through May 7, 2026) before NIH’s eRA systems began rejecting non-compliant submissions outright on May 8, 2026 (NOT-OD-26-079).
Each agency generates its document under a distinct SciENcv module. A researcher with a SciENcv profile selects “NSF Biographical Sketch,” “NIH Biographical Sketch,” or “NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement” as separate document types; each applies agency-specific certification language (NIH’s, for example, includes an explicit attestation about not participating in a malign foreign talent recruitment program) even though the underlying Common Form fields are closely aligned across agencies.
Submission systems differ. NSF proposals go through Research.gov; NIH submissions go through ASSIST or Grants.gov, tied to an eRA Commons account.
NIH’s pre-2026 format is now retired for current due dates. The narrative NIH-style biosketch (Personal Statement, Positions and Honors, up to five Contributions to Science) was NIH’s standard format for a decade before the Common Form transition; it no longer satisfies NIH’s own current requirements for application, Just-In-Time, RPPR, or Prior Approval submissions due on or after May 8, 2026, even though it remains a useful reference for understanding how NIH’s format historically differed from NSF’s.

ORCID and eRA Commons integration

SciENcv is built to reduce duplicate data entry across agencies. A researcher links an ORCID iD to their SciENcv account (Account Settings → Add account → ORCID) to auto-populate publications, employment, and education. For NIH submissions specifically, that same ORCID iD must also be linked to the researcher’s eRA Commons account so it displays correctly in the Common Form’s Persistent Identifier field — NSF’s module does not require an eRA Commons link, since NSF proposals do not route through eRA Commons at all.

Why this matters for research administration

For a research administrator supporting multi-agency PIs, the practical consequence is that “the biosketch” is no longer a single artifact a PI can reuse verbatim across every funder. Each agency-specific SciENcv module produces a differently formatted, differently certified document from the same underlying profile data, and submitting the wrong agency’s output (or a pre-mandate PDF) is a compliance error that can delay or block a proposal at intake. Tracking which mandate date applies to which document, for which agency, and confirming ORCID/eRA Commons linkage is current, is now a standard part of proposal-readiness review rather than a one-time setup task.

References

NSF, “Documents Required for Senior/Key Personnel,” nsf.gov/funding/senior-personnel-documents.
NSF, “FAQ: Using SciENcv,” nsf.gov/policies/document/faq-using-sciencv.
NSF, “FAQ: Current and Pending (Other) Support,” nsf.gov/funding/senior-personnel-documents/faq/current-pending.
NSF, “FAQ: Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) Information Template,” nsf.gov/funding/senior-personnel-documents/faq/coa.
NSF, “Common Form for the Biographical Sketch,” nsf.gov/policies/nspm-33/common-form-biosketch.
NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 23-1 and NSF 24-1, Chapter II.D.2.h.
NIH Guide Notices NOT-OD-26-018, NOT-OD-26-033, and NOT-OD-26-079, grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="NSF Biosketch (SciENcv)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/biosketch-nsf" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/biosketch-nsf",
  "name": "NSF Biosketch (SciENcv)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/biosketch-nsf",
  "description": "The Biographical Sketch that a proposer submits for NSF senior/key personnel counts as an NSF Biosketch (SciENcv) only when it is generated inside SciENcv using NSF's Biographical Sketch module and follows the NSPM-33 Common Form structure (Identifying Information, Organization and Location, Professional Preparation, Appointments and Positions, Products, Certification) -- a hand-typed PDF built outside SciENcv is no longer an accepted substitute for proposals subject to the current PAPPG.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-security#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/biosketch-nsf",
  "sameAs": [
    "NSF SciENcv biosketch",
    "NSF biographical sketch",
    "NSF Biographical Sketch Common Form",
    "SciENcv NSF biosketch"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-17T09:49:50",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}