Current and Pending/Other Support Requirements Overview

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) common forms are standardized templates for federal grant proposals, including the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support documents. The goal is to standardize disclosure requirements across federal agencies to assess an individual’s capacity and potential conflicts of commitment or overlap with other projects. While initially mandated for agencies like NIH and NSF in 2025, some deadlines have been postponed, and agencies are transitioning to these new forms.

• Key Documents and Their Function
  • Biographical Sketch: Assesses the qualifications of senior/key personnel on a research project.
  • Current and Pending (Other) Support: Details all active and pending projects, including funding, personnel time/level of effort, and objectives, to identify potential overlaps.
• Implementation Status
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): Made the use of common forms mandatory as of May 20, 2024.
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH): Has postponed the May 25, 2025.  In September 2025, NIH announced a previous of its implementation of the Common Forms in SciENcv.  The implementation date will be announced later in 2025.
• Other Agencies: The implementation timeline varies, but many are in the process of transitioning to the new forms.
• What researchers need to do
  • Stay Informed:
    • Keep up-to-date on the implementation timelines for your specific funding agencies, as deadlines are changing.
  • Use Current Forms:
    • Continue using the current NIH and other agency-specific forms until the new Common Forms are officially required.
  • Prepare for Transition:
    • Familiarize yourself with SciENcv and consider creating an ORCID ID, as these will be required once the new forms go into effect for all individuals.
• Additional requirements
  • Federal agencies will require all senior/key personnel on potential awards to submit updated Current and Pending (Other) Support information before making a funding recommendation. 
• Available for faculty: OSP’s training Powerpoint presentation Roadmap to getting started on SciENcv held on September 24, 2020.

• EPA Current and Pending Support

• NASA Current and Pending Support
• NASA Guidebook for Proposers Responding to a NASA Notice of Funding Opportunity
• NASA Pre-Award and Post-Award disclosure requirements

• NIST Current and Pending Support

• NIH Other Support
• NIH is adopting the Biographical Sketch Common Form and the Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form in 2025 as per the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum on Policy Regarding Use of Common Disclosure Forms for applications and Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs).
• NIH will require use of SciENcv for the Other Support and Biosketch forms
  • Preview of the NIH Common Forms in SciENcv
    • users will find options to create the “NIH Current and Pending (Other) Support PREVIEW Common Form” and “NIH Biographical Sketch PREVIEW Common Form” in SciENcv.
    • log in to SciENcv and select the “New Document” button.  In the “Create a New Document” modal that appears, the “Document type” drop-down menu will include these two new PREVIEW forms. Select either form and create a new document using any of the listed data source options.
    • Note: For the NIH Biographical Sketch Common Form and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement, you will complete both forms in a single user interface within SciENcv. Selecting the “NIH Biographical Sketch Preview Common Form” will allow you to preview both forms.
  • For optimal utilization of the preview functionality, and to prepare for the adoption of the Common Forms, it is recommended that users take the following steps prior to creating a document:
    • Obtain an Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID iD).
    • Associate your ORCID iD account and eRA Commons account with SciENcv.
    • Link your ORCID iD to your eRA Commons Personal Profile prior to previewing the forms.
      • For information on linking an ORCID iD to the eRA Commons Personal Profile see the ORCID iD topic in the eRA Commons Online Help.
  • NIH will post preview versions of the instructions to be used during the Common Forms and NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement preview process. 
• NIH Other Support form training
  • On July 17, 2025, NIH released a Notice NOT-OD-25-133 entitled “NIH Announces a New Policy Requirement to Train Senior/Key Personnel on Other Support Disclosure Requirements.”
  • This Guide Notice announced a new policy requirement that requires NIH recipients to provide training to all faculty and researchers identified as Senior/Key Personnel on the requirement to disclose all research activities and affiliations (active and pending) in Other Support (see Other Support form).
    • Effective October 1, 2025, George Mason must implement (reserch security?) training and maintain a written and enforced policy for the disclosure of other support to ensure Senior/Key Personnel fully understand their responsibility to disclose all resources made available to the researcher in support of and/or related to all of their research endeavors.
    • The policy must require disclosure regardless of whether or not the resources have monetary value and regardless of whether they are based at the institution; the researcher identifies the current grant. NIH has clarified that this training requirement applies prior to submitting Other Support documents during Just-in-Time (JIT) or RPPRs.
    • More guidance on this is forthcoming from NIH soon.

• NOAA Guidelines

• Current and Pending (Other) Support
• Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide
• NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance Pre- and Post-Award Disclosures Relating to the Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support
• NSF was the first agency implementing the NSPM-33 research security disclosure and certification requirements using the new “common forms,” effective May 20, 2024.
• The new forms are available in SciENcv and must be certified prior to downloading.
• For federal proposals, all senior/key personnel must certify that the individual is not a party to a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment program.  This certification will be included in the new Current and Pending (Other) Support document. 
• NSF’s biosketch format removes synergistic activities.  Synergistic activities will now be presented in a separate document attached to the proposal.
• OSP Authorized Organizational Representation will also have to certify that George Mason has performed due diligence in ensuring that no key personnel are involved in Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment programs.
  • ALL federal proposals, including proposals where Mason is a subrecipient, are now required to undergo an ORIA review of key personnel current and pending biosketch forms. See process.
  • For LOIs, if they are required to come through OSP, per the Mason policy, then they will complete a MFTRP review. LOIs submitted by PI, with no OSP involvement, do not require MFTP review until they are invited to submit a full proposal.
  • Current and pending and biosketch documents must be prepared as early as possible to facilitate this review. Late documents may result in proposals not being submitted.
• OSP has compiled NSF guidance and training resources, including links to OSP recorded trainings, into one document: NSF Requirements for Biosketches and Current and Pendings.

• Army Current and Pending Support

• USDA Current and Pending Support

• DOD Research Protection Memo (includes current and pending requirements)

• DOE Current and Pending Support Disclosure Requirements
• Digital Persistent Identifier Requirements for Certain Individuals for Research and Development
• Research Security Training Requirements for all R&D Financial Assistance Awards