Developing a narrative CV

Kanza, what’s your experience of narrative CVs? Part of my role as a research facilitator is to offer support on the new CV format. I’ve helped several people develop narrative CVs for UKRI and the British Academy – and supported the development of an interdisciplinary team CV for a centre grant application.

How did the researchers find the process? The senior academics had more career experience to draw on in the different sections and felt they could present themselves better than with a traditional CV. But the early career researchers found it a bit daunting to start with, and some struggled to fill in the sections for ‘leadership’ and ‘policy engagement’.

What advice did you give them? I helped them to think through their relevant experience so they could complete the sections. Supervising students for the leadership section, for instance, and involvement in conferences and networks for policy engagement. I’ve also been able to suggest that researchers include their administrative roles, for instance their involvement in department committees (ethics, research, academic etc).

What other advice would you give researchers? The main thing is, don’t rush it! Do a first draft and then come back to it and see where you can strengthen it. And get input from peers, senior colleagues or research facilitators. Developing a narrative CV is usually an iterative process and it takes time.

Any other tips? Writing can feel hard. Start with bullet points to get down your experience, then try to join similar points into a narrative for each section. This will also help you to keep your writing tight and avoid repetition.

What about team CVs? If there are a lot of collaborators, make sure you include the strongest examples in each section, and those that are most appropriate to that particular application. The best example may be from a more junior researcher rather than the PI.

What support can you offer? I’m happy to talk to individual researchers and I’m sure facilitators in other departments are too. Oxford has developed some really good guidance, so take a look at that. The UKRI website is also helpful to find out what reviewers are looking for.

And finally? The primary consideration is the relevance of the examples to the specific funding call. It's crucial that the examples are not only high quality but also directly relate to the proposal at hand. The examples should demonstrate your expertise in the subject, leaving no room for doubt in the minds of the reviewers!

Kanza Basit is a research facilitator in the department of economics

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