Published May 7, 2026, via Research News
NIH announced, via NIH Notice NOT-OD-26-079, the current leniency period previously communicated in NOT-OD-26-033 will end on May 7, 2026, the final AIDS standard receipt date for Cycle 1. Use of the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch, Current and Pending (Other) Support, and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement will be required for all application due dates and Just-In-Time (JIT), Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR), and Prior Approval submissions on or after May 8, 2026.
Important Updates and Reminders
Updates regarding entry of zero effort on Current and Pending (Other) Support:
On April 22, 2026, Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) and eRA deployed system updates to allow entry of zero person months effort for Proposals/Active Projects and In-Kind Contributions on the Current and Pending (Other) Support Form. Any documents created using this new version (2026-1) or older documents updated to the new version will allow individuals to indicate zero effort for sources of support when applicable. Note that the prior version of the Current and Pending Other Support (2025-1) generated from SciENcv that does not support zero person months effort will continue to function for submission to eRA systems.
WashU has confirmed with NIH that beginning May 8, 2026 eRA Commons will require the 2026-1 version (not the 2025-1 version) of the Biosketch and Current and Pending Other Support. This will be the case for applications submitting either using RMS/S2S and ASSIST.
WashU’s Research Management System (RMS) was updated on the evening of May 6, 2026, with a validation edit for applications that will be submitted using System To System (S2S) functionality.
Updates regarding Research Security Training Certification:
On April 22, 2026, SciENcv added the Research Security Training (RST) Certification back to the Common Forms to provide individuals time to comply with the requirement for applications submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2026 (NOT-OD-26-017).
If you certified your Common Forms prior to the addition of this text on April 22, 2026, and:
- Have not yet submitted your application for a due date on or after May 25, 2026, you should regenerate your Common Form PDF(s) prior to submission.
- Have submitted your application for a due date on or after May 25, 2026, you do not need to resubmit your application with regenerated Common Forms. NIH staff will collect updated documents to meet the RST certification requirement at JIT for applications selected for possible funding.
For applications that include Common Forms with the RST Certification, but are submitted for due dates on or before May 24, 2026, NIH will not hold individuals accountable for the portion of the certification statement related to the research security training that complies with the CHIPS and Science Act due to the training requirement being effective for due dates on or after May 25, 2026. WashU requires researchers to complete the current online course Responsible Conduct of Research to fulfill this requirement
Reminders for Linking Your ORCID to your SciENcv and eRA Commons Accounts:
All individuals submitting Common Forms to NIH must use SciENcv to produce digitally certified PDF(s). Please take the following steps to ensure documents have been completed successfully to pass NIH system validation requirements:
- Obtain an Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID iD)
- Link the ORCID iD to your eRA Commons account in your Personal Profile (PPF). See the ORCID iD topic in the eRA Commons online help.
- NOTE: The ORCID iD can be linked to only one Commons account. If you get an error from eRA Commons when trying to link your ORCID iD, or need to remove an existing ORCID iD from a Commons Account, contact the eRA Service Desk.
- Confirm your ORCID iD is displayed in the Persistent Identifier (PID) section of the Common Forms. To populate your ORCID iD in the PID field, you can either link your ORCID iD to your existing SciENcv account through the Account Settings page, or sign in using ORCID if this is your first time logging in to SciENcv. Alternatively, you can manually enter your ORCID iD into the required PID field in the “Identifying Information, Organization and Location” section of the Common Forms. For help on this topic, see Linking an ORCiD account to a My NCBI/SciENcv account – NCBI Insights and Fixing an incorrect Persistent Identifier (ORCID) in a SciENcv Document – NCBI Insights.
- Confirm the personal profile associated with the eRA Commons username entered in the Credential field of the application includes the same ORCID iD displayed in the PID field of the Common Form being submitted.
Reminder for RPPR, JIT and Prior Approval Modules:
The RPPR, JIT, and Prior Approval (PA) eRA modules were updated to allow Common Form attachments at an individual person-level (i.e., you no longer have to compile forms of multiple individuals into a single flattened PDF document). Please see Completing Section D: Participants of the RPPR for a video tutorial of the updates.
Resources
- Biographical Sketch Common Form and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement – instructions, FAQs, and other resources
- Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form – instructions, FAQs, and other resources
- Prepare for NIH Moving to Common Forms
If you have any questions about this material, please contact the Office of Sponsored Research Services.