How to Update Your NIH Biosketch to the New Format
Before I dive into how to tackle the changes to the Biosketch, let’s talk about why you’re here.
You probably haven’t thought at all about your Biosketch until you realized you needed to update it to the new format, right?
The reason I teach an entire lesson on the Biosketch in my virtual course (beyond a desire to be thorough) is because in all the years I’ve done grant reviews I’ve noticed a consistent theme:
Most people treat their Biosketch as a box to check off before submitting their application…
...rather than a crucial opportunity to argue for why their grant should be funded.
And if you’re one of those people?
Fun fact: a lot of the strategic review clients we work with don’t even send in their Biosketch for review...until we pretty much insist on it.
I totally get why people do this. This is so, so common.
Maybe you learned from a colleague or a mentor that your Biosketch is a static, boilerplate document that doesn’t require much effort.
Or maybe you’re just so exhausted from binge-writing grant after grant that you’re counting on one thing being recyclable. When you’re scrambling to get your grant out the door, it’s helpful to have something that you can recycle, right?
Or when you’re working with a key collaborator and you’re worried that you’re bothering them with too many requests, it’s nice to just be able to ask them to send something that’s already written.
BUT. (You knew there’d be a but.)
If you treat your Biosketch as an “easy” box to check off as you scramble to finish your grant, you’re missing a crucial opportunity to argue for the strength of your research team.
Not to scare you, but that’s pretty much the BULK of your Investigator(s) criterion score.
And if you’re still pretty early in your career, you need every opportunity to justify how and why you’re qualified to lead the research team to a successful outcome. ( 👈 this x1000 if you’re an underrepresented researcher and/or a woman, unfortunately)
Remember:
Your Biosketch is not an afterthought.
Your 👏 Biosketch 👏 Is 👏 Not 👏 An 👏 Afterthought 👏
It’s an opportunity.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about those changes:
Summary of changes to NIH Biographical Sketch
Both of the changes are relatively minor, but the second one (removing Section D) has implications you may not have considered.
Of course, as instructed, you can now include the details about any ongoing or completed research in Section A…but it’s how you go about it that really matters.
(Cutting and pasting Section D into Section A is not good enough, IMO. You need to think strategically.)
So make sure you’re using the two key sections—your Personal Statement and your Contributions to Science—as an opportunity to convince reviewers why you’re the right person in the right role.