NIH implements Common Forms for January due dates

From: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Sent: Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, 1:35 p.m.
To: NIH principal investigators

Dear NIH investigators,

The National Institutes of Health recently announced that its adoption of the Common Forms for biographical sketch and current & pending (other) support will go into effect for application due dates, just-in-time (JIT), prior approval requests, and research performance progress report (RPPR) submissions on or after Jan. 25, 2026.

NIH applicants and recipients must continue to use the current NIH Biosketch and Other Support format pages for applications, JIT, prior approval requests and RPPRs due before Jan. 25.

After Jan. 25, NIH will “enforce the use of the Common Forms via eRA system validations immediately as a warning when the wrong form is used. By Feb. 6, 2026, the warning will be elevated to an error preventing submission of the incorrect or uncertified forms. Failure to utilize the correct forms during the timeframes specified will cause NIH to withdraw your application from consideration.”

Research administration staff in the Office of Research and in research centers that provide proposal preparation assistance are aware of this change and will assist you with compliance. However, there are some actions that you must take yourself:

  • Register for an ORCID ID if you don't already have one. ORCID is a free, unique, persistent identifier (PID). For more information about the ORCID ID, visit the ORCID website. To begin your registration, visit Register – ORCID. An ORCID ID is mandatory for completing the Common Forms required for submitting NIH proposals, JIT and RPPRs. 
     
  • Once you have an ORCID ID, make sure your ORCID profile is up to date and connected to your funding and publication history. Go to ORCID for Researchers to learn how to optimize your ORCID record and minimize manual entry of data.
     
  • Link your ORCID ID to your eRA Commons profile. NIH has posted instructions at The ORCID ID help website. An ORCID ID that is linked to the eRA Commons profile is mandatory for completing the Common Forms required for submitting NIH proposals, JIT and RPPRs.
     
  • Log in to SciENcv using the same credentials you use for the eRA Commons (eRA Commons ID, Login.gov, My NCBI, ORCiD) and create a profile.

SciENcv is an application in My NCBI that produces a digitally certified PDF of the Common Forms in agency-appropriate formats. The National Science Foundation has required use of the Common Forms created in SciENcv since May 2024.

NIH anticipates finalizing the templates in SciENcv for Common Forms, the NIH biographical sketch supplement and associated instructions the week of Dec. 15, 2025. We will alert the research community when those resources become available.

Thank you,
KU Office of Research