Updated Timeline for Common Form Biosketches Beginning May 8
NIH Common Form biosketches will be due for all proposals beginning May 8 – this means it is mandatory for all May 25 deadlines.
The announcement by NIH states “the current leniency period previously communicated in NOT-OD-26-033 will end on May 7, 2026, the final AIDS standard receipt date for Cycle 1. Use of the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support, and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement will be required for all application due dates and Just-In-Time (JIT), Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR), and Prior Approval submissions on or after May 8, 2026. During the remainder of the leniency period, NIH will continue to provide system warnings and will not withdraw applications containing the NIH Biosketch and NIH Other Support format pages, or non-compliant Common Forms. On May 8, 2026, system warnings will change to errors that will stop any submission not using compliant Common Forms.”
For more information read the Announcement of Upcoming System Enforcement of Common Forms and End of NIH’s Leniency Period
Furthermore, this week NIH added a new certification to the form, so if you created and certified your Common Forms prior to the addition of this text on April 22, you will need to regenerate your Common Form PDF for submissions on or after May 25, 2026.
As a reminder, the Proposal Development Services team has extensive information on preparing Common Form biographical documents in SciENcv:
- NIH SciENcv Tipsheet and Annotated Biosketch
- For more detailed information, see our NIH Common Form Instructions Resource which covers:
- Creating and connecting ORCiD, eRA Commons, and SciENcv
- Changes to the content and formatting for the Personal Statement and Contributions to Science
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the shift to the Common Form
Contact [email protected] for questions or assistance
