For a detailed walkthrough of setting up SciENcv for the first time, click Home above.
Once you have a SciENcv account, choose the +Create new document link, pictured here. It's in fairly small print so it may be hard to spot on your SciENcv page.
That will take you to a page where you can choose what kind of document you want to create: NSF biosketch, NIH biosketch, NIH fellowship biosketch, IES (Dept of Ed) biosketch, or Current and Pending (Other) Support for either funder.
Choose the source of any reused data that you want to import, such as reusing a previous Biosketch or CPOS page or importing education and employment information from eRA Commons, Research.gov, or ORCID. You can only choose one source for data at this stage, so choose the one that will have the most and most accurate information to serve as the basis of your new Biosketch.
Adding a delegate allows a coordinator, administrator, or research assistant to create and manage content for you.
After logging in to SciENcv, there should be a button with your username in the upper right. Click your username.
From the menu, choose Account Settings.
Scroll down to find the Delegates section. and click Add Delegate.
Enter your delegate's email address in the resulting form, then click Save.
They will receive an automated email asking whether they confirm that they should be delegates on your account.
Be sure you know the correct email to delegate to! A departmental pre-award administrator who has agreed to enter your support information should be added by a shared school / college / departmental research administration unit email instead of individual person's address when possible.
Delegates cannot certify documents. The final document certification stage must be completed by the PI / senior personnel who owns the Biosketch or CPOS document
If your past positions and education are already in eRA Commons, Research.gov, or ORCID, you can bring those into your Biosketch automatically. You can bring in education and position information from either eRA Commons or ORCID or research.gov or a past Biosketch, but only one of those sources. Importing from eRA Commons or Research.gov is most useful when creating your first Biosketch. When making your second or future Biosketches, it may be cleaner to use a past SciENcv Biosketch as the data source.
If you already have a biosketch or CPOS document in SciENcv and want to update or convert it, chose the Existing Document menu to see a list of options. You can use the Existing Document menu to convert between formats, such as using the data in an NSF biosketch to populate an NIH or IES biosketch.
Note for the May 2025 NIH Common Forms implementation: The common-forms-compliant NIH template will not be available until some time in Spring 2025. However if you create an NSF Biosketch and CPOS document now, they allow you to enter the information that aligns with the Common Forms. They should therefore have the right information to convert from NSF to NIH when the new NIH template emerges. The "Existing Document" menu will allow you to convert an existing Biosketch and NSF CPOS to NIH format when the new templates become available.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to import a Word or PDF biosketch into SciENcv.
Once you have chosen which external source you want to use, if any, you will be taken to your Biosketch to begin editing or adding to your information. What this looks like will depend on what information came in through the external sources and which template you are working with.
If entries are only partially imported, they may show a code that reads TODO. The TODO code means that there was no data imported for that field, and you will need to edit the item with the TODO code to update it for accuracy. Below are screenshots from the NSF Biosketch template and the NIH biosketch template, each showing where to find the edit button to update an employment position that imports the TODO code:
Chat