Clarifications and Consolidated Biosketch Instructions and Format Pages Available for Applications with Due Dates On or After May 25, 2016

Notice Number: NOT-OD-16-080

Key Dates
Release Date: March 23, 2016

Related Announcements
NOT-OD-16-084
NOT-OD-16-081
NOT-OD-16-004

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Purpose

This Notice informs the biomedical and health services research communities that in accordance with NOT-OD-16-004, the biosketch instructions and format pages have been updated. The updated instructions and formats should be used for application due dates on or after May 25, 2016.

Updates to the biosketch instructions will include:

  • A consolidated biosketch format and instructions for research, institutional research training, institutional career development, research education, fellowship, and dissertation awards, as well as diversity supplements.

Clarified instructions:

  • Indicate that a URL for a publication list is optional and, if provided, must be to a government website (.gov) like My Bibliography.
  • Allow publications (peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed) and research products to be cited in both the personal statement and the contributions to science sections
  • State that graphics, figures and tables are not allowed.
  • Remove the requirement that the past 3 years of research support are listed in order of relevance.
  • Option to add other names used to author research products in section A.
  • Research products can include conference proceedings such as meeting abstracts, posters, or other presentations.
  • Research products that are under development, such as manuscripts that have not yet been accepted for publication, can be mentioned in the narrative sections. However, they cannot be cited as one of their citations.

The FORMS-D application instructions will be posted on March 25, 2016. They will have a single set of biosketch instructions and a link to the new format page for use with all mechanisms. This information will also be available from the NIH Forms page.

Additional Information
We encourage researchers to try the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) as a tool to build their biosketches.

SciENcv pulls information from available resources making it easy to develop a repository of information that can be readily updated and modified to prepare biosketches for submission to multiple agencies. A YouTube video provides instructions for using SciENcv. Support for fellowship application biosketches will be available in SciENcv later this year.
See FAQs for additional information

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

NIH Grants Information
Email: grantsinfo@od.nih.gov (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-945-7573