SciENcv PDF Update Required for upcoming NIH and other federal submissions

Posted: 2026-09-30 15:05:05   Expired: 2026-10-07 15:05:05

This announcement is for a time-sensitive SciENcv issue affecting application submissions for eRA Commons on or after September 26, 2026.

Impact of SciENcv Digital Certificate Update

SciENcv recently updated the digital certificate used to validate electronic signatures on Biographical Sketch and Current & Pending (Other) Support documents.

As a result, any documents generated in SciENcv before September 19 contain an expired certificate. Documents downloaded from SciENcv before that date may fail validation in eRA Commons and generate errors that delay or block submission. These previously created documents will not pass signature validation and should be regenerated in SciENcv before application submission.

This certificate change affects applications and RPPRs to NIH, AHRQ, CDC, NIOSH, FDA, and VA submitted on or after September 26, ASSIST, or Grants.gov Workspace. Because SciENcv is also used to prepare Biosketch and CPOS documents for NSF, DOE, NASA, and USDA proposals, investigators with imminent submissions to those agencies are encouraged to regenerate their documents as a precaution.

What Action is Needed

For submissions after September 26, any SciENcv PDF generated on or before September 19 must be replaced with a newly downloaded version.

Investigators should log back into SciENcv and regenerate their Biosketch and CPOS documents. When 'Download PDF' is selected, SciENcv will prompt the investigator to certify. The new PDFs should replace any older versions in in-progress applications.

October 5 R01 deadline

Any in-progress application that already includes Biosketch or CPOS documents will need to have those documents regenerated and replaced this coming week.

-- NDSU Research and Creative Activity: Fred Hudson