Complete walkthrough (Biosketch + CPOS)

This page consolidates the end-to-end steps (PI + admin) for both documents.

flowchart LR
    accTitle: End-to-end Common Forms walkthrough
    accDescr: The complete workflow starts with one-time preparation, creates the biosketch, creates CPOS when requested, and ends with individual certification.
    A["Prep once per person"] --> B["Create NIH Biosketch"]
    B --> C["Fill Common Form"]
    C --> D["Fill NIH Supplement"]
    D --> E{"CPOS requested?"}
    E -- "Yes" --> F["Create CPOS"]
    E -- "No" --> G["Track future CPOS stage"]
    F --> H["Individual certification"]
    G --> H
    H --> I["Unmodified SciENcv PDFs"]

0) Prep (do once per person)

  • Confirm eRA Commons ID
  • Create ORCID iD
  • Link ORCID in eRA Commons (required)
  • Confirm the same ORCID appears as the SciENcv PID (link ORCID in MyNCBI/SciENcv, sign in with ORCID, or manually enter it)
  • Clean My Bibliography (publications + non-traditional products)
  • Add delegate (optional)

1) Create the NIH Biosketch in SciENcv

  1. MyNCBI → SciENcv → Create New Document
  2. Format: NIH Biosketch (Common Form + Supplement)
  3. Choose a starting point:
    • ORCID import (fast)
    • Copy from existing SciENcv doc (if you had one)
    • Blank (manual)

Fill the Common Form

  • Identifying information (ensure ORCID appears as PID)
  • Professional Preparation
  • Appointments and Positions
  • Products:
    • Select from My Bibliography (preferred)
    • Use ORCID tab only if needed and reconcile back into My Bibliography later
    • Re-order products so your strongest evidence appears first

Fill the NIH Supplement

  • Personal Statement (3,500 chars, no citations)
  • Contributions (≤5, 2,000 chars each, no citations)
  • Honors (≤15)

How to refer to evidence without citations:
Use language that points to the product by title / author / year, for example: “see Title of Product (Smith, 2024)” or “see dataset released in 2023 by Jones et al.”

2) Create CPOS in SciENcv (when NIH requests it)

  1. Confirm that your role, mechanism, and submission stage actually require CPOS. For many NIH applications, CPOS is requested later (often during JIT) rather than attached at initial submission.
  2. SciENcv → Create New Document
  3. Format: NIH CPOS Common Form
  4. Enter active + pending support and required in-kind resources

Important application-stage exception: mentored career development applications require CPOS for mentor/co-mentor(s), not for the candidate.

3) Certification (individual-only)

  • Each named individual: Download PDF → Certify → Download
  • Repeat for biosketch and CPOS
  • Do not edit the PDF after download (no printing/flattening)