Reminder: NIH Proposal Requirements Effective Jan. 25, 2026
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued notice (NOT-OD-26-018) announcing the following new documentation requirements for NIH proposals submitted on or after January 25, 2026:
- Researchers must use the following common forms available through SciENcv: Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.
- Researchers must obtain an ORCID iD and link it to their eRA Commons account. To comply with this requirement, the ORCID iD must generate on the researcher’s common forms in SciENcv.
- Principal investigators must certify that they have completed required research security
training in the preceding 12 months. This certification is submitted as part of the Current and Pending (Other) Support
form.
RESOURCES
SciENcv common forms:
CGI Hub SciENcv Reference Guide
CGI Hub on-demand SciENcv training videos
ORCID iD:
USC Libraries Introduction to ORCID Guide
Research Security Training:
- CGI Hub Research Security Training page (USC researchers will complete this web-based training and receive their certificate of completion through the CITI training platform.)
- Important Note: To receive credit for completing required research security training, users must
download their certificates of completion and submit them to Research Training and
Education Services through the form available on the Research Security Training page.
**Note After evaluating the number and types of recent technical inquiries NIH received to both the SciENcv and eRA Service Desks, they recognize the difficulties these issues have had on the community’s ability to comply with the original timeline of January 25, 2026.
To allow for a period of leniency, NIH will provide a warning when the Common Forms are not used but will not withdraw applications that don’t comply with the use of the Common Forms. We expect the leniency to be in place through May 2026 (see NOT-OD-26-033).
NIH will issue a future Guide Notice (anticipated Spring of 2026) announcing the date when the validation will be changed to an error and the requirement to use the Common Forms will be system-enforced.