The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that after the next version of their Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) takes effect (anticipated January 2020), all biographical sketch PDFs must be generated using an NSF-approved format. This requirement is intended to reduce administrative burden by providing a compliant way to maintain and update biosketch information and to ensure searchability of submitted biosketches.
Biographical sketch and file format requirements apply to all NSF proposals, whether submitted through FastLane, Research.gov, or Grants.gov. (NSF currently requires a biosketch, limited to two pages, for anyone identified as senior personnel on proposals, and a separate biosketch for each must be uploaded as either a PDF file or another NSF-approved format.)
SciENcv Is an NSF-Approved System for Biosketches
NSF has designated the National Institutes of Health’s free profile service, SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae) as an NSF-approved format for biosketch submission and is encouraging its use. SciENcv is part of MyNCBI, so anyone with a MyNCBI account can use it. Users can also assign delegates to manage their profiles in SciENcv. The system allows users to create, share, and maintain biosketch profiles, and information can be updated in SciENcv, eliminating the need for duplicate entry in multiple agency forms and systems. A significant timesaving feature of SciENcv is connectivity with eRA Commons and planned connectivity with more sponsor systems in the future. In SciENcv, users can create a new biosketch or duplicate and update an existing biosketch, but they can also populate a biosketch through existing external sources, such as the eRA Commons profile. SciENcv’s publications section is linked to a user’s My Bibliography account, where users can add citations manually or from MyNCBI. If a user’s eRA Commons account is linked to MyNCBI, funded NIH grants transfer automatically to the research support section in SciENcv. Currently, users must manually enter awards from other sponsors, but automatic feeds from other sponsors will be added to SciENcv in the future.
Please contact your RAS or OSP representatives for more information. Additionally, the SciENcv website is an excellent source of information and training resources, including: