# NIH Biographical Sketch Draft: [Your name]

> Drafting aid for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) biographical
> sketch in its Common Form format: the federal Biographical Sketch Common
> Form (identifying information, professional preparation, appointments
> and positions, products) plus the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement
> (personal statement, honors, contributions to science), required for
> NIH applications and reports due on or after 2026-01-25 under notice
> NOT-OD-26-018. Draft and count characters here, then enter the final
> text in SciENcv, the only system NIH accepts for these forms. Facts were
> checked in October 2026; NIH has amended the rollout more than once, so
> check the current notices and form instructions before you submit.
> Replace every `[bracketed]` value and every passage marked *Example*.

<!--
Guidance: How to use this template
- This is a working draft, not the submission. The submitted PDF must be
  generated and certified in SciENcv (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/).
- Draft the personal statement last: write it for this specific project and
  your role in it, after the products and contributions are settled.
- SciENcv counts characters including spaces. University guides report
  that SciENcv added Markdown formatting for the narrative boxes in March
  2026; links are still not allowed. Keep this draft in plain text inside
  each box and check the count in SciENcv after pasting.
- Funder-specific annex: for other funders, start from the funder-neutral
  Grant Proposal (`academic/grant-proposal`), whose NIH annex (section 15.1)
  lists the other NIH forms.
- This is a documentation aid, not legal advice. Certification statements
  carry legal liability; read them in SciENcv and ask your institution's
  sponsored programs office about anything you are unsure of.
-->

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Opportunity | [Notice of funding opportunity number and title] |
| Application due date | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Your role | [PD/PI / Senior/key person / Other significant contributor] |
| Project title | [Project title] |
| ORCID iD | [0000-0000-0000-0000] (linked to eRA Commons: [Yes / No]) |
| eRA Commons ID | [ID] |
| SciENcv delegate | [Name, or None] |
| Research security training completed | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Draft owner | [@name] |
| Last updated | YYYY-MM-DD |

## 1. What NIH requires (October 2026)

<!-- Guidance: Read this once, then confirm each line against the current NIH pages listed in section 9. Notices change; this table is dated so you can see when it may be stale. -->

| Item | Requirement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Biographical Sketch Common Form plus NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement, generated together in SciENcv as one PDF | NOT-OD-26-018 |
| When | Application due dates, Just-in-Time, progress reports (RPPR) and prior approval submissions on or after 2026-01-25 | NOT-OD-26-018 |
| Legacy format | Leniency period ended 2026-05-07; NIH systems now enforce the new forms | NOT-OD-26-033, NOT-OD-26-079 |
| Persistent identifier | ORCID iD shown in the form and linked to the person's eRA Commons profile | NOT-OD-26-018 |
| Certification | Each person certifies their own form in SciENcv (a delegate may enter data but cannot certify); the signature date must be within 12 months of submission | Common Form instructions |
| Research security training | For due dates on or after 2026-05-25, each senior/key person certifies completion of research security training within the 12 months before submission | NOT-OD-26-017 |
| Page limit | None for the biosketch as a whole; narrative sections have character limits | NIH Supplement instructions |
| Hyperlinks | Not allowed in the narrative boxes; full URLs and identifiers belong in the product citations | NIH Supplement instructions |

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  A["Create or update ORCID record"] --> B["Link ORCID iD to eRA Commons"]
  B --> C["Draft sections in this template"]
  C --> D["Enter Common Form sections in SciENcv"]
  D --> E["Enter Supplement sections in SciENcv"]
  E --> F["Person certifies the form"]
  F --> G["Download one PDF"]
  G --> H["Attach to application or report"]
```

## 2. Identifying information

<!-- Guidance: Use your name exactly as in eRA Commons. Organisation and location are your current primary organisation. A mismatch between name, ORCID iD and eRA Commons profile is a common cause of system errors. -->

| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Name | [Family name, Given name] |
| Persistent identifier (PID) | [ORCID iD] |
| Position title | [*Example:* Associate Professor] |
| Primary organisation and location | [*Example:* Department of Environmental Health, Harbourton University (fictional), Harbourton, [State], United States] |

## 3. Professional preparation

<!-- Guidance: List degrees and postdoctoral training in the order SciENcv asks for. Include institution, location, degree or role, start and end dates and field. Do not leave out training completed outside the United States. -->

| Organisation and location | Degree or role | Start | End | Field of study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Example:* Eastmoor Institute of Technology (fictional), [City, Country] | BSc | 2004-09 | 2008-06 | Environmental Science |
| *Example:* Harbourton University (fictional), [City, Country] | PhD | 2008-09 | 2013-05 | Epidemiology |
| *Example:* Coastal Health Research Centre (fictional), [City, Country] | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2013-07 | 2016-06 | Climate and Health |
| [Organisation, location] | [Degree or role] | YYYY-MM | YYYY-MM | [Field] |

## 4. Appointments and positions

<!-- Guidance: List all current and previous academic, professional and institutional appointments and positions, domestic and foreign, paid or unpaid, full or part time, in reverse chronological order. Foreign appointments must be disclosed here and are covered by the certification. -->

| Start | End | Position | Organisation and location |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Example:* 2022-07 | Present | Associate Professor | Harbourton University (fictional), Department of Environmental Health |
| *Example:* 2016-07 | 2022-06 | Assistant Professor | Harbourton University (fictional), Department of Environmental Health |
| *Example:* 2023-01 | Present | Visiting Researcher (unpaid, 2 weeks per year) | [Foreign organisation, Country] |
| YYYY-MM | YYYY-MM | [Position] | [Organisation, location] |

## 5. Products

<!-- Guidance: Up to 5 products closely related to the proposed project and up to 5 other significant products that support your contributions to science (section 8). Products include publications, preprints, datasets, software, patents and other citable, accessible outputs. Give a full citation for each: authors, title, date, URL or other persistent identifier, and the usual journal details; enter N/A for parts that do not apply. -->

### 5.1 Products closely related to the proposed project (up to 5)

| ID | Citation | Type | PMCID or other PID |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 *(Example)* | Velden M, Osei K, Lindqvist T. Heat exposure and emergency visits in older adults. [Journal]. 2025;[vol(issue)]:[pages]. | Journal article | [PMCID or DOI] |
| P2 *(Example)* | Velden M, [Co-author]. Harbourton heat-health dataset, version 2. [Repository]. 2024. | Dataset | [DOI] |
| P3 | [Citation] | [Type] | [PID] |
| P4 | [Citation] | [Type] | [PID] |
| P5 | [Citation] | [Type] | [PID] |

### 5.2 Other significant products (up to 5)

| ID | Citation | Type | Supports contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| P6 *(Example)* | [Citation for an earlier method paper] | Journal article | C1 |
| P7 *(Example)* | [Citation for an open-source analysis package] | Software | C2 |
| P8 | [Citation] | [Type] | [C#] |
| P9 | [Citation] | [Type] | [C#] |
| P10 | [Citation] | [Type] | [C#] |

Check before entering: publicly funded journal articles you authored
should show a PMCID where the NIH public access policy applies, and every
URL should be shown in full rather than hidden behind link text.

## 6. Personal statement (up to 3,500 characters)

<!-- Guidance: Explain why you are well suited to your role in this project: relevant training, prior work on the topic, technical expertise, collaborators and environment, and past performance, including ongoing and completed projects from roughly the past three years that you want to highlight. You may explain factors that affected productivity (for example family care, illness, disability or military service). University guides report that NIH changed the Supplement instructions around 2026-05-06 to allow short in-text, parenthetical references to any of the ten products in section 5 (for example "Velden 2025, P1"); full citations and links are not allowed. Confirm this in the current Supplement instructions. -->

[*Example (926 characters including spaces):* I am an environmental
epidemiologist with more than ten years of experience in studies of heat and health,
and I will lead the design and analysis of this project. My postdoctoral
training at a coastal health research centre focused on time-series methods
for daily health records, and my group has since built a linked dataset of
emergency visits and local weather for two hospitals (Velden 2024, P2). Our
recent analysis showed that visits by adults aged 75 and over rose by 12%
for each day above the local heat threshold (Velden 2025, P1), which is the
starting point for Aim 1. I have led two completed pilot projects on this
topic, funded by [funder], and I co-lead an ongoing study of cooling centre
use. I work closely with the city public health department, which will
host the warning trial in Aim 3, and with the biostatistics core that will
support the analysis. I published under the name M. Andersen before 2015.]

Character count: [N] / 3,500 (the example above: 926)

## 7. Honors (up to 15 entries)

<!-- Guidance: Relevant academic and professional achievements and honors with year and awarding body. Students, postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty should include scholarships, traineeships, fellowships and development awards. Clinicians should include licences and specialty board certifications. -->

| Year | Honor | Awarding organisation |
|---|---|---|
| *Example:* 2024 | Early-Career Investigator Award | [Society name] |
| *Example:* 2014 | Postdoctoral Fellowship | [Funder name] |
| YYYY | [Honor] | [Organisation] |

## 8. Contributions to science (up to 5, each up to 2,000 characters)

<!-- Guidance: For each contribution, give the historical background that frames the problem, the central findings, their influence on science or their application to health or technology, and your specific role. Contributions do not need to relate to the proposed project. Figures, tables and graphics are not allowed. Short parenthetical references to any of the ten products in section 5 (for example "P6") are reported as allowed since about 2026-05-06; full citations and links are not. Confirm the current citation rule in the Supplement instructions. Enter N/A if you have no contributions to report. -->

**C1.** [*Example:* Before 2015, most heat-health studies used city-wide
temperature series and could not separate the effect of heat from that of
air pollution on the same days. I developed a method that uses
neighbourhood-level temperature and pollution data together (P6). It
showed that about one fifth of the apparent heat effect in earlier studies
reflected pollution. The method has since been adopted in [describe uptake
without overstating]. I conceived the method, wrote the analysis code and
led the paper.]

Character count: 497 / 2,000 *(Example)*

**C2.** [Background, central finding, influence, your role. Products: P#]

Character count: [N] / 2,000

**C3.** [Contribution]

Character count: [N] / 2,000

**C4.** [Contribution, or delete]

**C5.** [Contribution, or delete]

## 9. Before you certify

<!-- Guidance: Work through this list in SciENcv, not in this draft. Each person certifies their own form; a delegate cannot certify for you. -->

- [ ] Name, ORCID iD and eRA Commons profile match, and the iD is linked
- [ ] All domestic and foreign appointments and positions are listed
- [ ] At most 5 related products and 5 other significant products
- [ ] Every product has a full citation and visible persistent identifier
- [ ] Personal statement is at or under 3,500 characters including spaces
- [ ] Honors list has no more than 15 entries
- [ ] No more than 5 contributions, each at or under 2,000 characters
- [ ] No full citations or links inside the narrative boxes
- [ ] Research security training completed within the last 12 months
      (due dates on or after 2026-05-25) and the date recorded
- [ ] The certification statements in SciENcv have been read in full
- [ ] The PDF downloaded from SciENcv is the one attached, not an older
      version
- [ ] Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form is prepared
      separately in SciENcv

Official pages to check before submission:

- NIH notice NOT-OD-26-018: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-018.html
- Biographical Sketch Common Form: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory/biographical-sketch-common-form
- NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory/nih-biographical-sketch-supplement
- SciENcv: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/

## Revision history

<!-- Guidance: Keep one row per draft you share with a mentor or grants office, so comments can be traced to a version. -->

| Version | Date | Author | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | YYYY-MM-DD | [@name] | First draft for [opportunity] |
| 1.0 | YYYY-MM-DD | [@name] | Entered and certified in SciENcv |

## Standard and licence note

Based on public US federal guidance, described in original words: NIH
notice NOT-OD-26-018 (Common Forms for the biographical sketch and current
and pending (other) support, due dates on or after 2026-01-25),
NOT-OD-26-033 and NOT-OD-26-079 (adjusted timeline, end of the leniency
period on 2026-05-07 and system enforcement), NOT-OD-26-017 (research
security training) and the NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement instructions.
NIH pages blocked automated access in October 2026, so section limits and
dates were confirmed through university research office and library guides
that reproduce the NIH instructions (WashU Becker Medical Library, Rutgers,
HJF, University of Oklahoma HSC). Check the current notices and form
instructions on grants.nih.gov before submitting. This is a drafting aid,
not legal advice. Template licence: MIT.