Initiative is intended to help improve researcher assessment
A free online platform has been launched to help researchers write narrative CVs, with the aim of making researcher assessment fairer.
Narrative CVs are a more holistic alternative to achievement-based CVs. For researchers, the latter often have a narrow focus and lack information beyond education history, papers published and grants won.
Supported by six major European research funders, the peer-mentorship exchange platform for helping with the creation of narrative CVs, PEP-CV, was launched on 15 March.
According to the Young Academy of Europe, which is supporting the platform, users “will learn to write a more effective narrative-style CV, highlighting the strengths of their individual profiles and receiving insight from experienced colleagues…fostering a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive research and innovation environment”.
Broad support
The platform is being funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund, the Dutch Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Wellcome biomedical research charity and UK Research and Innovation. All these funders require narrative CVs in funding applications.
Researchers from funder countries are already able to sign up as mentors, but the platform is open globally. It is also being supported by the Marie Curie Alumni Association.
The Young Academy of Europe said that funders supporting the initiative will “enhance their reputation and credibility” around their commitments to the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment.
Coara is an EU-backed initiative that aims to make research assessment fairer and more reflective of the diversity of research roles, including by making more use of qualitative methods and cutting the inappropriate use of quantitative metrics, such as by requiring narrative CVs.
Working group progress
Coara currently hosts 12 thematic working groups that are each focusing on reforming specific areas of research assessment.
In an update on 17 March, it reported that one group met earlier this month and is currently conducting a survey on academic careers that is also open worldwide.
A working group on ethics and research integrity and another on multilingualism and language biases are due to meet in the coming weeks.