Taming complexity: narrative CVs in grant funding evaluations (RoRI Working Paper No. 14)

Funding bodies and universities across Europe have recently begun to implement narrative CV formats for evaluative decision-making in peer review panels. Narrative CVs supplement more ‘traditional’ information such as publication lists and employment history with novel elements, in which researchers describe their achievements and trajectories in narrative form. Often, such novel CV formats and related policies and guidelines - which we deem inextricably linked - also regulate the use of traditional information, such as impact metrics and publication lists.

In this short Working Paper, we propose a way to conceptualize how narrative CVs alter evaluative practices in peer review and provide preliminary findings about their impact from an ongoing study. We draw on observations and interviews with reviewers in two subsequent funding rounds of a grant program of the Dutch Research Council NWO, which aims to enable early career researchers in the social sciences and humanities to carry out an independent research project abroad.