On February 4, 2026, NIH issued NOT-OD-26-033 to announce that NIH has extended the leniency period for required use of the Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support through May 2026. During this period, applicants may continue to use the existing NIH formats, and submissions that do not use the new Common Forms will trigger warnings but will not be rejected.
This extension follows a significant volume of technical inquiries received by the SciENcv and the eRA Service Desks after the December 2025 rollout of the Common Forms. Recent SciENcv adjustments have resolved some of these issues, but NIH determined that the burden on users warranted additional transition time.
The new timeline also allows NIH to align Common Form certification requirements with new Research Security Training policies and gives institutions more time to update internal systems and procedures.
What to expect:
- Applicants are encouraged to begin using the Common Forms as soon as possible, but existing formats will be accepted until the end of the leniency period.
- Validation warnings will remain in place until Spring 2026, when NIH will announce the date they will convert to errors.
- After May 2026, failure to use Common Forms will block submission.
- Additional FAQs, instructions, and training resources will continue to be posted.