Notice Number: NOT-OD-13-114

Key Dates
Release Date: September 17, 2013

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

This Notice announces the availability of a test or beta version of the Science Experts Network (SciENcv). This new electronic system will enable researchers to easily assemble the information (including expertise, employment, education and professional accomplishments) to populate an NIH biographical sketch (biosketch). Initially, the goal of SciENcv is to reduce the burden associated with creating and maintaining federal biosketches while accommodating the need to describe scientific contributions.

SciENcv is a cooperative project requested by the Federal Demonstration Partnership, a coalition of research institutions and federal agencies. Seven federal science agencies, including DoD, DoE, ERA, NIH, NSF, the Smithsonian, and USDA, formed an interagency workgroup to develop the concept. SciENcv is being built by NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the direction of the workgroup, which operates under the aegis of the National Science and Technology Council’s Research Business Models and Science of Science Policy Committees.

The interagency workgroup invites users to test the beta version that was released on September 9, 2013. The beta version will help researchers assemble an NIH biosketch by extracting information from NIH eRA Commons and PubMed. In addition, SciENcv will permit users to link their data to a persistent, unique identifier offered by ORCID.

Users can get to SciENcv by going to the NCBI sign-in page at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/. Users have the option to sign in using third-party accounts (for example, an eRA Commons account, a local institutional account through InCommon, or a Google account). Full documentation on how to use My NCBI is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3842/. Information on how to set up and use the SciENcv tool is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154494/.

The beta version of SciENcv will allow users to explore the system and create an NIH biosketch. Users also are invited to identify features that need to improved or added to fully serve the needs of the research community. Suggestions can be entered using the utility provided at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. A number of enhancements are already planned for future versions of SciENcv including the ability to generate biosketches for other federal agencies as well as other functionality listed below

• Generate and maintain multiple biosketches including those for NSF and other federal science agencies
• Describe the scientific impact of past discoveries
• Ingest data from additional external systems
• Control data exposure
• Transfer data to other systems
• Allow delegates to manage data

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries about SciENcv to:

Walter T. Schaffer, Ph.D.
Co-Chair of SciENcv Interagency Workgroup
Senior Scientific Advisor for Extramural Research
Office of Extramural Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health
Building One, Room 138
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Telephone: 301-402-2725
Email: schaffew@od.nih.gov

And

Amy Northcutt
Co-Chair of SciENcv Interagency Workgroup
Chief Information Officer
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22230
Telephone: 703-292-8102
Email: anorthcu@nsf.gov