Scholar Profiles

Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) is an electronic system that helps researchers assemble the professional information needed for participation in federally funded research. SciENcv gathers and compiles information on expertise, employment, education and professional accomplishments. Researchers can use SciENcv to create and maintain biosketches that are submitted with grant applications and annual reports. SciENcv allows researchers to describe and highlight their scientific contributions in their own words.

What is a biosketch?

A biographical sketch or biosketch is a document highlighting the qualifications of key personnel for a specific role in a proposed grant project. Both the NIH and the NSF require a biosketch for senior or key personnel applying for and renewing grants with each agency.

Advantages of SciENcv

• Eliminates the need to repeatedly enter biosketch information
• Reduces the administrative burden associated with federal grant submission and reporting requirements
• Provides access to a researcher-claimed data repository with information on expertise, employment, education, and professional accomplishments
• Allow researchers to describe their scientific contributions in their own language

Principles of SciENcv

• Any researcher may register - it's free!
• Leverages data from existing systems
• Data are owned by the researcher
• Researcher controls what data are public
• Researcher edits and maintains information
• Researcher provides own data to describe research outcomes
• Researcher has ultimate control over data in biosketch

Additional tutorials from the National Library of Medicine:

The SciENcv utility is a cooperative project requested by the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP), which is an association of academic research institutions and federal agencies. In collaboration with the FDP, SciENcv is being built by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Institutes of Health under the aegis of an interagency workgroup composed of members from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF), The Smithsonian, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The interagency workgroup operates under the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Research Business Models and Science of Science Policy Committees.

Are you preparing -- or considering -- an NIH or NSF grant? This information will be key for your application documentation. The requirements below apply to any faculty who plan to submit grants as well as their administrators.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

As of Oct 23, 2023, the NSF requires that researchers create biosketches with SciENcv to apply for funding.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Starting May 25, 2025, the NIH will require the use of SciENcv for biographical sketches and Other Support documents; PDFs made from Word documents will no longer be allowed. 

For Assistance

For more information on grant requirements, please reach out to Creighton University's Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) using the link below. The Creighton University Libraries collaborate closely with SPA and can assist with creating the required documentation in the SciENcv platform as well as optimizing your profiles in ORCID and/or MyNCBI to streamline this process and set you up for any future submissions. To contact the Libraries, use the profile box under the navigation menu or find your discipline's Research & Instruction Librarian.

Biosketches for NSF or NIH must be created in SciENcv. For information about using SciENcv, please see the lefthand navigation in this guide as well as information about CFE Workshops from Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) and the University LIbraries that walk you through these processes. Before you create a BioSketch using SciENcv, be sure to have a complete and accurate list of your publications in either MyNCBI My Bibliography or ORCID. Once complete, you are ready to create a BioSketch.

Navigate to SciENcv once you are logged into any of the following platforms: eRA Commons, MyNCBI.  

• Click, Create New Biosketch
  • Document Name
    • Enter the name of this BioSketch. 
  • Format
    • NIH Biosketch
  • Data Source
    • Blank
    • Existing BioSketch
      • If you have an existing BioSketch with information such as your education and training, positions and employment, Professional memberships or Honors, you can import this information by selecting the "From an existing biosketch".
    • From an External Source
      • If you don't have an existing BioSketch, select the "From an external source" tab.   
      • Select the External Source (eRA Commons, NSF, ORCID)
    • Indicate if you want the BioSketch to be Public or Private (you can change it later)
  • Click Create
  • Fill in / update the following
    • A. Professional Preparation (e.g. Education/ Training)
    • B. Appointments and Positions
      • Provide a list, in reverse chronological order by start date, of all the senior person's academic, professional, or institutional appointments and positions, beginning with the current appointment (including the associated organization and location). Appointments and positions include any titled academic, professional, or institutional position whether or not remuneration is received, and whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, or honorary).
      • Select which entry to use as the position title and current employment
    • B. Personal Statement
      • Add your personal statement  
      • Select up to 4 citations 
    • C. Products

      • Provide a list of: up to five products most closely related to the proposed project; and (ii) up to five other significant products, whether or not related to the proposed project that demonstrate the senior person's qualifications to carry out the project as proposed.

        Senior personnel who wish to include publications in the products section of the Biographical Sketch that include multiple authors may, at their discretion, choose to list one or more of the authors and then "et al" in lieu of including the complete listing of authors' names.

    • D. Synergistic Activities

      • Provide a list of up to five distinct examples that demonstrates the broader impact of the individual's professional and scholarly activities that focus on the integration and transfer of knowledge as well as its creation.

        Synergistic activities must be specific and must not include multiple examples to further describe the activity. Examples with multiple components, such as committee member lists, sub-bulleted highlights of honors and prizes, or a listing of organizations for which the individual has served as a reviewer, are not permitted

Source: UIC ResearchGuides