NIH Biosketch Common Form: What Changed

NIH replaced its long-standing narrative biosketch format with a new two-part NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form, required for applications, Just-in-Time submissions, Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs), and Prior Approval requests with due dates on or after January 25, 2026 (NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-018). For three and a half months after that date, a non-compliant biosketch triggered only a warning. As of May 8, 2026 (NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-079), the same validation checks became hard errors: eRA Commons and ASSIST now block submission outright rather than flagging it. This page explains what the Common Form is, where it came from, exactly what changed section by section, and what happens if you try to submit the old format today.

Last verified: August 16, 2026. NIH’s Common Forms rollout has been amended more than once since January 2026 — check NIH’s Common Forms policy page directly for any notice issued after this date before treating a specific deadline below as final.

What is the NIH Biosketch Common Form?

The NIH Biosketch Common Form is a standardized, government-wide biographical-sketch template that NIH now requires in place of its old narrative format. “Common” refers to the fact that the form’s core structure — Identifying Information, Organization and Location, Professional Preparation, Appointments and Positions, Products, and a Certification statement — is shared across federal funding agencies, not unique to NIH. NIH adds one NIH-specific piece on top of that shared structure: a separate NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement carrying the Personal Statement, Honors, and Contributions to Science narrative that NIH reviewers have historically relied on. Both parts are prepared together in SciENcv, NIH’s (and NSF’s, and now several other agencies’) required biosketch-preparation tool.

Where the Common Form came from

The Common Form did not originate at NIH. It traces back to National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), issued in January 2021, which directed federal research-funding agencies to standardize disclosure requirements — biosketches and Current and Pending (Other) Support statements chief among them — across agencies, in order to close inconsistencies that made it harder to detect undisclosed foreign financial support, conflicting affiliations, and participation in foreign talent-recruitment programs. The National Science and Technology Council’s NSPM-33 Subcommittee on Research Security developed the resulting common disclosure forms and disclosure table; NSF has since acted as the government-wide steward of the Common Form template itself.

NSF was the first major research agency to require the Common Form for its own Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support documents, phasing it in for proposals due on or after January 30, 2023 and making SciENcv mandatory (retiring its own fillable-PDF alternative) for proposals due on or after October 23, 2023. NIH’s own implementation came considerably later — effective for due dates on or after January 25, 2026, per NOT-OD-26-018 — which is exactly why “NIH biosketch common form” only became a live search term in 2026: the underlying Common Form architecture is a few years old, but NIH’s adoption of it is brand new.

For background on the disclosure obligations NSPM-33 created more broadly (not just the biosketch), see CASRAI’s explainer on who counts as a “Covered Individual” under NSPM-33 and CASRAI’s 18-months-in look at NSPM-33 implementation across agencies.

Which other agencies use the same Common Form

NIH is not the only agency using this template, and applicants who hold or seek funding from more than one federal agency should expect to reuse most of the same document. Based on agency guidance and the COGR (Council on Governmental Relations) NSPM-33 implementation tracker, agencies that have adopted or are adopting the Common Form for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support include:

NSF — first agency to require it (2023); NSF also serves as the Common Form’s government-wide steward.
NIH — required for due dates on/after January 25, 2026 (NOT-OD-26-018).
DOE (Department of Energy) — issued its own Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form usage requirements for financial assistance in December 2025, also built around SciENcv.
NASA, DOD, and USDA — each has committed to or begun phasing in the same Common Form architecture as part of their own NSPM-33 implementation, on agency-specific timelines.

Because the underlying structure (Identifying Information through Certification) is shared, a researcher who has already built a compliant NSF biosketch in SciENcv is most of the way to a compliant NIH one — the NIH-specific addition is the separate Biosketch Supplement described below, not a wholesale rebuild. See CASRAI’s worked NSF Biographical Sketch example for how the shared Common Form fields look in practice.

Old format vs. new format, section by section

The pre-2026 NIH biosketch (in use since a 2015 revision) was a single narrative document with a hard five-page limit, organized into Sections A through D. The new format is two separate documents — the Biographical Sketch Common Form and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement — with limits set per field rather than per page.

Old format (pre-2026, Sections A–D)	New format (Common Form + Supplement, effective Jan 25, 2026)
Single document, 5-page overall limit	Two documents; limits are per-field (character/entry counts), not a shared page cap
No standardized “Identifying Information” or “Organization and Location” fields	Biographical Sketch Common Form Part 1 opens with structured Identifying Information and Organization and Location fields, shared in format across agencies
Section A: Personal Statement (narrative, no fixed character limit, effectively bounded by the 5-page total)	NIH Biosketch Supplement: Personal Statement, reported to carry roughly a 3,500-character limit
Section B: Positions, Scientific Appointments, and Honors (one combined narrative list)	Split: structured “Appointments and Positions” now sits in Common Form Part 1; Honors moved into the NIH Biosketch Supplement alongside the Personal Statement
Section C: Contributions to Science — up to 5 contributions, each with a short narrative and supporting citations	Common Form Part 1 “Products” section: up to 5 products “Closely Related to the Proposed Project” plus up to 5 “Other Significant Products,” each an entry rather than a paragraph; Contributions to Science narratives (reported ~2,000 characters each) live in the Supplement
Section D: Scholastic Performance — required only for fellowship (F-series) applicants, listing coursework and grades	Eliminated entirely — no equivalent field in either the Common Form or the Supplement
No certification statement	Common Form Part 1 ends with a Certification, including an attestation regarding non-participation in a malign foreign talent recruitment program
No persistent-identifier field	Common Form requires an ORCID iD, entered in the Persistent Identifier field and linked to the applicant’s eRA Commons account
Prepared in SciENcv or written directly; SciENcv was recommended, not required	Must be generated in SciENcv — NIH no longer accepts a hand-formatted narrative biosketch for covered submissions

The net effect for most applicants: the free-text “tell your research story” quality of the old Personal Statement and Contributions to Science narrative is preserved, but only inside the Supplement, in shorter, character-limited fields; everything that used to be embedded in prose (appointments, honors, an implicit publication list) is now pulled out into its own structured, no-page-limit section of the Common Form itself.

The timeline: what triggered what

January 25, 2026 — NOT-OD-26-018 takes effect. The Biographical Sketch Common Form, the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement, and the Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form become required for any application, JIT submission, RPPR, or Prior Approval request due on or after this date. eRA Commons validation begins, but non-compliance produces a warning, not a block — submissions with an unlinked ORCID iD or an old-format biosketch still go through.
February 4, 2026 — NOT-OD-26-033 extends the warning-only leniency period, pushing the switch to hard enforcement out to May 7, 2026.
May 8, 2026 — NOT-OD-26-079 takes effect. The same eRA Commons/ASSIST validation logic that previously produced a warning now produces a blocking error. Nothing about the Common Form’s requirements changes on this date — only the enforcement mechanics do.

For a closer look at the May 8 enforcement switch specifically — including the three most common validation-failure causes NIH itself flags — see CASRAI’s news coverage: NIH Begins Enforcing Common Forms: SciENcv Biosketch and ORCID Linkage Required Starting May 8, 2026.

What happens if you submit the old-format biosketch now

As of May 8, 2026, submitting an application, JIT response, RPPR, or Prior Approval request that includes an old-format Sections A–D biosketch, or that is missing a Common Form with a valid, eRA-Commons-linked ORCID iD in the Persistent Identifier field, is rejected by eRA’s validation logic before it reaches review. This is a hard stop, not a warning that a program officer might waive: the submission cannot be completed until the biosketch is regenerated in SciENcv in the correct Common Form structure and every senior/key person’s ORCID iD is properly linked. The three failure modes NIH itself cites most often are an ORCID iD that was never linked to eRA Commons at all, an ORCID iD and eRA Commons account that are each linked to the applicant individually but not connected to each other through SciENcv, and a biosketch or Current and Pending (Other) Support PDF exported from a stale SciENcv session that looks complete on screen but is missing required metadata underneath.

Practically, this means any biosketch prepared before an applicant last checked NIH’s current requirements is worth regenerating from a fresh SciENcv session immediately before submission, not reused from a folder of past applications — a biosketch that validated in February may not carry a properly linked ORCID iD by the time it’s reused for a July deadline.

Do you need an ORCID iD for the NIH Biosketch Common Form?

Yes. Every senior/key person named in an application covered by NOT-OD-26-018 must have an ORCID iD, and that iD must be entered in the Common Form’s Persistent Identifier field and linked to the individual’s eRA Commons account. This requirement sits within NIH’s broader push toward persistent digital identifiers for federally funded researchers, tracing back to 2022 OSTP public-access policy guidance. See CASRAI’s dictionary entry on the NIH biosketch and the guide on linking ORCID to SciENcv for NIH biosketches for the step-by-step linkage process.

Frequently asked questions

What is the NIH Biosketch Common Form?

It is the standardized, two-part biographical-sketch format NIH now requires in place of its old narrative Sections A–D biosketch: a Biographical Sketch Common Form (structured, shared architecture with NSF and other agencies) plus an NIH-specific Biographical Sketch Supplement (Personal Statement, Honors, Contributions to Science), both generated in SciENcv.

When did the NIH Common Form biosketch become required?

For applications, JIT submissions, RPPRs, and Prior Approval requests with due dates on or after January 25, 2026, per NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-26-018. A warning-only leniency period ran until May 7, 2026; hard-error enforcement began May 8, 2026 under NOT-OD-26-079.

Where do I find the NIH Biosketch Common Form instructions?

NIH publishes its Common Form instructions and the form itself on the Biographical Sketch Common Form page in the NIH Forms Directory. The document is prepared inside SciENcv, not downloaded and filled out as a standalone PDF.

Can I still submit the old narrative biosketch format?

No, not for any submission due on or after January 25, 2026, and as of May 8, 2026 an old-format biosketch or an unlinked ORCID iD will block submission entirely rather than triggering a warning.

Which other agencies use the same Common Form as NIH?

NSF (the first adopter and the Common Form’s steward), DOE, and, on their own phased timelines, NASA, DOD, and USDA all use the same shared Common Form architecture for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support, coordinated through the NSPM-33 Subcommittee on Research Security.

Is the NIH Biosketch Common Form the same as the NSF biosketch?

The core Common Form structure — Identifying Information, Organization and Location, Professional Preparation, Appointments and Positions, Products, Certification — is shared with NSF. NIH adds its own separate Biographical Sketch Supplement (Personal Statement, Honors, Contributions to Science) on top of that shared structure; NSF does not have an equivalent supplement document.