The slides for this session can be found here.
Your biosketch is required for you and for all key personnel on your application, including your sponsor(s) and key collaborators. NIH now uses a single Biographical Sketch Common Form for all applicants — there is no longer a separate fellowship biosketch format.
Before building your biosketch you need three linked accounts: an ORCID iD, an eRA Commons profile, and an NCBI/MyNCBI account. Getting these connected early saves significant time.
In eRA Commons: Personal Profile → scroll to the ORCID section → click Connect or Create.
Your biosketch research products must be cited from MyBibliography — you can no longer type in free-form citations. Keep it current.
Adding PubMed-indexed papers:
Items not in PubMed (book chapters, preprints, datasets, posters) must be added manually via MyBibliography → Add citation → Manual entry.
Also check that funded papers have a PMCID assigned and are in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
The personal statement is a concise first-person summary of your scientific identity. Aim for under 2,400 characters (roughly 300–350 words). Papers are not included here (cite them in the Contributions section).
A strong personal statement covers:
It is best to write this document in parallel with the Candidate’s Goals, Preparedness, and Potential section. Both documents should highlight your background and accomplishments consistently.
Strong example (5th-year PhD candidate):
My research focuses on how dysregulated RNA splicing drives tumor progression in glioblastoma (GBM), an area where therapeutic targets remain scarce despite decades of effort. During my PhD in Dr. Sarah Chen’s lab at the University of Michigan, I identified a recurrent splicing switch in the PTBP1–PTBP2 axis that promotes mesenchymal transition in GBM cell lines and patient-derived organoids. This work, currently under revision at Cancer Research, revealed that pharmacologic inhibition of PTBP1 with a small-molecule splicing modulator reduced invasive behavior in vivo, providing proof-of-concept for a new therapeutic strategy.
Notice: specific institution, specific mentor, specific mechanism, specific project status, and a forward-looking scientific significance statement.
Weak example:
I am a highly motivated and passionate scientist with a strong background in biomedical research. I have always been fascinated by the complexity of living systems and have dedicated my career to understanding the fundamental mechanisms that drive human disease. My exceptional training has equipped me with a diverse range of technical and analytical skills…
Notice: no specific science, no specific project, and generic adjectives that every applicant could claim. Reviewers have read hundreds of these.
List relevant positions and appointments in reverse chronological order. You may list up to 15 honors. Include awards, fellowships, named scholarships, and competitive honors. Do not pad with non-competitive items.
You may list up to 5 contributions to science, each with up to 2 research products (10 products total). You no longer list citations separately beneath each narrative — cite the product directly within the SciENcv form from MyBibliography.
It is fine to have fewer than 5 contributions. A focused set of 2–3 well-written contributions is more effective than 5 thin ones.
Keep MyBibliography up to date throughout your training the same way you maintain your CV — add items as they occur, not all at once before a deadline.
Two common approaches:
You can also rearrange contributions between applications to foreground the work most relevant to a specific project.