WARNING: Per NOT-OD-24-163, as of 2025 May 25, the NIH will require that biosketches be generated using a forthcoming Common Form through the SciENcv tool on MyNCBI, which will include digital certification. Accordingly, use of this LaTeX class and template is strongly discouraged for NIH grant applications.

latex-nihbiosketch

A LaTeX class implementing the new NIH Biographical Sketch Format.

The original version of this LaTeX document class tried to adhere to the Biographical Sketch formatting requirements outlined in NIH Notice NOT-OD-15-032. This format was required for applications submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2015.

The current version is adjusted to adhere to the changes described in NIH Notice NOT-OD-21-073, whose implementation was rescheduled in NOT-OD-21-110 and will now apply to applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25, 2022.

I tried to mimic the example documents provided on the SF 424 (R&R) Forms and Applications page as closely as possible. I have used this class for my own grant submissions; however I offer no guarantee of conformity to NIH requirements.

Quick Start

To use:

1. Add the file newbiosketch.cls to your local texmf tree
2. Pattern your document based on example-nihbiosketch.tex
3. Compile your document with xelatex or lualatex (required for the Arial font that NIH favors)

Details

The nihbiosketch class is based off of the standard article class. It defines several new commands and environments to make creation of an NIH Biosketch relatively straightforward. The most straightforward approach is to use the example-nihbiosketch.tex document as a template for your biosketch.

The companion template fellowship-nihbiosketch.tex is organized to mimic a Fellowship Biosketch.

New commands

• \name -- your full name (lastname, firstname)
• \eracommons -- your ERA Commons user name
• \position -- your position / job title
• \grantinfo{Grant #}{Grant PI}{Grant Dates}{Grant title}{Grant description}{Your role} -- takes care of formatting grant info in standard NIH format

New environments

• \begin{education}...\end{education} -- A table environment for listing academic degrees and training. The four fields of this table are: 1) Institution and Location; 2) Degree; 3) Completion date; 4) Field of study.

• \begin{statement}...\end{statement} -- This environment temporarily changes paragraph indent in a manner appropriate for the personal statement section. Wrap your personal statement (and up to four peer reviewed publications that specifically highlight your experience and qualifications for the proposed project) in this environment.

• \begin{datetbl}...\end{datetbl} -- A table environment that makes neatly aligned information with accompanying dates. Use this for employment, honors, other positions, awards, etc. This is a two column table, where the first column is for date information, and the second column is for descriptive text (second column wraps lines).

• \begin{datelngtbl}...\end{datelngtbl} -- A modified datetbl environment that uses the longtable facilities.

Contributors

• Paul M. Magwene created the class and all elements not otherwise credited.
• Jason Cory Brunson added a fellowship template and adapted both templates to NOT-OD-21-073.
• Abigail Noyce improved underlining behavior via normalem.

Availability

The canonical source repository for this package is https://github.com/pmagwene/latex-nihbiosketch.

This package is also available via CTAN at http://www.ctan.org/pkg/nihbiosketch and hence via your standard LaTeX package manager if you use TeX Live (e.g. TeX Live Utility).