SciENcv is an online platform for investigators to create biographical sketches using the common forms required by several federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as part of their grant applications. The new NIH common forms link with investigators’ ORCID iDs and allow them to add citations from their ORCID profiles and NCBI My Bibliography.
While NIH’s original date for requiring the use of SciENcv and the new NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form was January 25, 2026, due to major technical issues the guidance has been updated to allow for a period of leniency through approximately May 2026. That said, NIH Is encouraging investigators to move to the new system as soon as possible.
Just getting started with SciENcv? View Open Science Librarian Andrew Creamer’s January 2026 presentation, Using SciENcv to Create a NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form. He also has a tip sheet for troubleshooting common issues setting up one’s account.
Further questions? Email Health and Biomedical Library Services (HBLS) team at HealthSciLibrarians@brown.edu for help with the process.
Additional resources:
For support directly from NIH, or from the National Library of Medicine, which hosts SciENcv:
- For technical issues with the platform, open a ticket with the SciENcv Help Desk either by emailing NLMSciencv@mail.nih.gov or submitting the issue via the NLM Customer Support Center web form.
- For non-technical questions about what information to include on the forms, email nihosbiosketch@nih.gov.
From the NIH:
- Instructional documents for submission of:
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support