As many veteran grant applicants can tell you, it can be tedious (and sometimes confusing) work to keep a CV up to date. But for federal sponsors like the NIH, NSF, and NASA, Biographical Sketches and Current and Pending (Other) Support documents remove the guesswork by streamlining a researcher's CV into a concise and standardized format; these documents help reviewers to determine an investigator's preparedness to undertake their proposed project, as well as to mark potential conflicts of interest. Take a moment to read our tips and tricks about NIH, NSF, and NASA Biosketch formats to make sure your application doesn't stand out for the wrong reasons!
NIH
NIH proposals require the use of the NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form, which contains three major sections. These include Professional Preparation and Training; Appointments and Positions; and finally, Products Most Closely Related to the Proposed Project. Within the same form, there is also a required Supplement that includes a personal statement; up to 15 honors or awards; and a description of your Contributions to Science. Use this link for detailed instructions.
The NIH's Current and Pending (Other Support) Common Form will require you to create a list of all proposals and currently active grants, which will give reviewers a comprehensive profile of sources of support, including nonfinancial support. This will include not only your previous proposals and awards from the NIH, but currently pending and active awards/proposals for any source of support. Additionally, you should list any sources of in-kind support with an estimated dollar value of $5,000 or more, and require a commitment of your time. (This could include office or laboratory space; data sets; goods and services; or employee or student resources.)
To create these documents, you must use the online tool ScienCV. UMBC's library has provided instructions about how to use this tool to generate your Biosketch, which you can access here. For more from the NIH, see their FAQ.
Don't forget...
- Unless specified by the NOFO, you will NOT provide your Current and Pending document at the time of application, but rather as part of the Just-In-Time (JIT) process as you are being awarded.
- Tip: to make sure your documents are valid, check the expiration date on the upper right hand corner of the first page.
NSF
The NSF’s Biosketch format is similar to the first half of the NIH common Form. It contains four sections: Professional Preparation; Appointments and Positions; and Products (with up to 5 publications closely related to the proposed project and up to 5 additional publications significant to the applicant.)
Unlike the NIH’s system, NSF requires the Current, Pending, and Other Support form at the time of proposal. It also requires the applicant to list all proposals and currently active grants from any funder; you should also list all in-kind contributions that are estimated at a value of $5,000 or higher and commit the investigator’s time. (This could include office or laboratory space; data sets; goods and services; or employee or student resources.)
Don’t forget…
- For the NSF, Biosketches and CPOS documents are only 2 of the 4 required documents that all Senior/Key Personnel must provide at the time of proposal. (The others are the Collaborators and Other Affiliates and Synergistic Activities documents.)
- While the NSF does not cap salary, it does cap NSF-funded effort at a total of 2 person months across all awards. The NSF uses the CPOS document to check whether investigators are under this threshold, so please be sure to document your effort accurately.
- While Biosketches are likely to remain stable across multiple proposal submissions, your CPOS will change with each proposal. Please ensure that only the current proposal is marked “this proposal” in the Statement of Potential Overlap and that all recent submissions are included as pending.
NASA
Of the three agencies covered in this post, NASA is the only one that requires a Biosketch and Current and Pending format that is generated from a word document template, and signed and certified using Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word or a similar signature software, or by providing a wet signature and scanning.
First, visit NASA’s Grant Operations Management website and scroll to the Regulations, Guidance, and Forms section. Under Grant Forms, you can download the NASA templates for the Biosketch and Current and Pending Support (CPS). Once you have finished filling out the appropriate entries on each of these forms, you must digitally sign each of these forms to fulfill the certification and signature requirement. NASA has provided these instructions about using digital signature software to sign the forms.
Don’t forget…
- Some programs may only accept certain types of signatures, so check the RFP carefully to ensure that your documents meet the program’s specific requirements, if any.
- You MUST include your ORCID or other Persistent Digital Identifier.
- Although these documents are formatted as word documents, modifying the standard language on the templates is not allowed.