New NSF Biosketch Requirements

Quyen Wickham

January 27, 2021

As of October 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) requires one of two forms for creating Biosketches: the Fillable PDF or the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae). Applications with Biosketches created in any other format will be returned!

A comparison of the two formats:

Fillable PDF (https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/nsfapprovedformats/biosketch.pdf)

Requires Adobe Acrobat to complete
Limits the number of lines per field (likely will limit the number of references/products you can include...which may be less than the maximum of 5)
Low learning curve (it's a PDF form)
Can only be used with NSF

SciENcv (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/)

Requires creating a personal NCBI account
Provides much more flexibility in characters/lines available per field
Higher learning curve; information is added to form fields, then Biosketch is exported
Can be used with NSF or NIH
Biosketch data is stored and custom Biosketches can be created for different applications (as well as saved)

I highly recommend using the SciENcv format. Many faculty have been frustrated with the limitations of the Fillable PDF. Please also be aware that altering the outputs of either Biosketch tool is likely to invalidate the Biosketch and cause the application to be returned.

Both NSF and NIH detail specific content and formatting requirements for biographical sketches. Creating biosketches unique to each FOA is important to increase the competitiveness of the funding application. SciENcv provides proposers with a compliant and reusable way to maintain this biosketch information for subsequent proposal submissions to either agency; the tool makes it easy to customize each biosketch for individual FOAs.

Multiple training resources are available on the SciENcv website. The following website resources may be of assistance in preparing a biographical sketch using the SciENcv format: