Overview of this session

The session will provide you with information on what a narrative CV is, where it is coming from and why it is being adopted by the Research & Innovation sector. It will detail the different parts of the CV and provide tips about how to frame your research and other skills, as well as what you should be doing to improve your CV to make you competitive for fellowships and academic positions in the future.

The introduction of the Narrative CV is part of a drive by the Research and Innovation sector to improve Research Culture, notably by recognising the importance of a wider range of contributions by researchers and moving away from using inaccurate and narrow metrics as indicators of research quality. Main UK research funders are adopting the Narrative CV or ‘Résumé for Research and Innovation’ for their funding calls, with UKRI committing to using it across all their schemes by the start of 2024. The Narrative CV aims to shift emphasis away from reliance on limited performance indicators such as funding, impact factors, and citations, and instead allow for a more inclusive and appropriate description of varied career pathways, contributions, experience, and a broader range of outputs. Beyond funding, research institutions are investigating how similar principles could apply to other aspects of research assessment, such as academic progression.

The format for each funder is somewhat different but all Narrative CVs are based on the Royal Society Resume for Researchers, and include headings such as: 'Independent contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies or knowledge', 'Leadership in the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships', 'Contributions to the wider scientific community and research and innovation culture' and 'Impact on the broader scientific community beyond your field and exploitation of research towards wider societal benefit'. it focuses on the impact and significance of your activities and research, not just a list of your achievements.

As the narrative CV format is rapidly being rolled-out across UK funding calls, including all UKRI calls by the end of the year, all researchers interested in applying for research funding in the future would benefit from this session. It is likely that similar formats and/or principles will in the future apply to academic recruitment and progression, so those with an academic career plan should also become familiar with it.

While the content is tailored to research staff, it is also relevant to others and everyone is welcome to attend.

Facilitator

Dr Evelyn Keaveney

The session will be facilitated by Dr Evelyn Keaveney MRSB, Research Development Officer (Medicine, Health and Life Sciences), Research and Enterprise Directorate, Queen’s University Belfast. Evelyn has worked in Research Development since April 2020 and has experience with fellowship applications from multiple National funders. Evelyn has helped candidates to success with UKRI, Royal Society Awards and Leverhulme Awards, as well as organising training workshops which can be found on the Research Development Fellowship Training Page. You can contact Evelyn to speak about your funding application ideas and for help to find a funder, and prepare your applications for fellowships in Queen’s.

The 'Postdoc Life' series

The 'Postdoc Life' series of information sessions aims at highlighting some of the internal and sector developments and initiatives to postdocs and research staff, in order to help them better understand and navigate their direct (Queen's) and wider (UK Research and Innovation sector) environment.

Sessions will be organised approximately once per month, and future topics will include, quality outputs and citations etc.

All postdocs and research staff can suggest future topics by contacting the PDC (pdc@qub.ac.uk).