Your curriculum vitae – all about the CV format
With the funding application, you will submit a curriculum vitae (CV) in line with the SNSF’s specifications, describing your major achievements as a researcher.
In the broadest sense, what scientific qualifications do you have? For reviewers and evaluation panels, this is one of the key questions when they assess your application. The CV answers this question. It is made up of five elements.
- Education and training
- Previous and current employment
- Major achievements with selected works
- Net academic age
- ORCID iD number
We focus most closely on the achievements you describe and the associated selected works. A lengthy list of publications is not part of the CV. This increases equality of opportunity and allows for an evaluation aligned with the DORA principles.
Please note: The achievements do not have to be directly associated with the current application. The idea is for you to give a general description of your most important research achievements to date. Achievements can include your contribution to:
- Generation of knowledge, innovation and advancement of research
- Development and support of peers and the wider research community
- Broader society
Professional skills that are relevant for the project should be stated primarily in the research plan. That means you can write the CV once and then use it with small adaptations for other applications, including in other SNSF funding schemes. This reduces your workload and leads to fewer overlaps between the CV and the research plan.
The net academic age is the amount of time you have actually been able to dedicate to research, after deducting interruptions and non-scientific work.
You will need an ORCID iD for the CV. This international identifier for scientists associates you clearly and permanently with your research.
- Enter your CV here
- Sample CV (PDF)
- Webinar on the CV (29.06.2022): recording and slides (PDF)
- Information about DORA
News 28.02.2022: A new CV
More information on the curriculum vitae:
Major achievements with selected works
Describe in your own words 1-3 of your major achievements with selected works across your whole career.
Your achievements should serve as a general description of your most important scientific contributions to date and do not need to be linked or of direct relevance to the research outlined in your current application. The SNSF aims to guarantee a fair assessment of scientific works by implementing the DORA principles. Don’t refer to citation metrics, journal rankings, institutional rankings, your h-index, or any other proxy indicators of scientific quality.
Achievements can include your contribution to:
- Generation of knowledge, innovation and advancement of research: Selected research outputs, such as articles and books, educational and policy publications, code, software and data sets and research findings you have patented.
- Development and support of peers and the wider research community: Institutional duties, teaching activities and mentoring, contribution to conferences, scientific societies and editorial work, and expertise you provided to collaborations.
- Broader society: Open- and citizen science initiatives, outreach activities, engagement with industry and the private and public sector and efforts to advise policymakers.
To describe your achievements you may refer to:
- your specific role, contribution or expertise
- your work or finding(s) and their impact on science or society
- your application of skills and new methods to foster innovation, new ideas and projects
- your approach to teaching, mentoring, leadership, connecting researchers and engaging with the public or politics.
Give a maximum of ten work samples as reference, distributed across the achievements in any way. All types of work are eligible – for example articles in scientific journals, chapters of books, conference papers, data sets, etc. Please refrain from citing any individual work more than once.
The description and the cited works allow evaluators to assess the scientific qualifications of the applicant, based on their past achievements. Achievements and works can vary greatly between career stages and disciplines. Therefore, the evaluation of the major achievements takes into account the scientific discipline, the net academic age and the career trajectory of the applicant.
Net academic age
Since your dissertation or state medical examination, how long have you actually been able to work in research, after deducting interruptions and non-scientific work? This time span between your graduation and the submission of the funding application is your net academic age, calculated in full-time equivalents (FTE). In your CV, you should state this in years and months. We evaluate your track record of achievements in relation to your net academic age, allowing us to make a fair comparison with other applicants. You can claim deductions, for example, for maternity or paternity, illness, continuing education and public service.
If, at the time of submitting your application, you have not yet completed your doctorate or state medical examination, your academic age will be 0. This is possible in the case of, inter alia, Postdoc.Mobility. Some funding schemes, such as Doc.CH and BRIDGE, do not require applicants to have a doctorate or state medical examination; in these cases, no academic age will be calculated.
ORCID identification number
To create your CV, you will need an ORCID identification number (ORCID iD). This international identifier associates you clearly and permanently with your research, irrespective of name changes, different name spellings or a change of institution.
As a researcher, you have complete control over your data in the ORCID profile. You decide what information is associated with your iD number and which information is visible to whom. The name and ORCID iD are always public.
Please be aware that the publicly accessible content of your ORCID profile is also accessible to the reviewers and the evaluation panel. We would therefore advise you to list your most recent and important works in the profile. You can import works that you want to include in your CV directly into the SNSF-portal.
The free-of-charge ORCID iD is administered by an independent, not-for-profit organisation. Members include universities, publishing houses and research funding bodies throughout the world.
Resources for developing Narrative-style CVs
The Peer Exchange Platform for Narrative-style CVs (PEP-CV) matches mentors who have acquired experience in preparing a narrative CV with mentees who would like to gain insights on how to write their narrative CV. The exchange will help researchers understanding how to best present a diverse range of experiences and achievements.
Researchers who would like to participate as mentors or mentees can register for free on the platform by following this link.
FAQ
Do all applicants need to submit a CV in the new format?
Do all applicants need to sub-mit a CV in the new format? Yes, all applicants, i.e. the responsible applicant and other applicants, need to create and to submit their CV in the new format. The format will be successively implemented in the funding schemes from October 2022. You can find more information on the funding scheme-specific websites and on mySNF.
Do I need a CV for an application under the Lead Agency- and Weave-process?
Yes, from 1 October 2022 onward. For applications, which are evaluated by the SNSF, all applicants need a CV in the new format. For applications, which are evaluated by the partner organisation, only applicants from Switzerland need a CV in the new format.
In which language do I have to submit my CV?
The CV must be written in the language of the research plan.
Where can I generate my CV for an application to SNSF?
The CV for an application to an SNSF funding scheme can be generated on the SNSF Portal.
Why do I need an ORCID account?
ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a global, not-for-profit organisation sustained by fees from its member organisations, including the SNSF. Having your own ORCID iD ensures that you are correctly identified and reliably connects you with your works, awards and affiliations. If you do not yet have an ORCID iD, you do need to create one for the new CV format.
Can I add data on my ORCID profile post-submission?
Yes, you can add data to your ORCID profile anytime. This will not automatically update your CV.
Can I fill out the new CV form for other applicants?
No, CVs have to be created by each individual applicant with their own ORCID iD.
Can I authorise someone to work on my behalf in my CV account?
We advise you not to allow anyone else to work in your CV and not to share your ORCID credentials at any time.
Can panel members and external experts consult my ORCID profile?
Your ORCID iD will be visible as an active link on your CV and, depending on your visibility settings, evaluators will have access to your curated list of works on your ORCID profile. As your ORCID iD will be shared with evaluators, the SNSF recommends that your most recent and your most important works be visible in your ORCID profile.
Can I use the “net academic age” of the CV also for calculating the eligibility window?
No, these two are not to be used synonymously. The net academic age is the amount of time you have actually been able to dedicate to research since the relevant degree, after deducting interruptions and non-scientific work. The net academic age is taken into account in the scientific evaluation, whereas eligibility windows are relevant for formal requirements.
The personal requirements are stipulated in the Funding Regulations and in the regulations of the specific instrument. If the eligibility to apply in a funding instrument is limited to a specific period, this period may be extended at the applicant's request (see Clause 1.11 of the General implementation regulations for the Funding Regulations).
Which criteria will be applied to the evaluation of the CV?
The SNSF has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which recommends that funders be explicit about the criteria used in evaluating the scientific productivity of applicants, taking due account of the scientific quality, value and impact of their entire research output (including datasets, software, prototypes) in addition to research publications. For this purpose, the SNSF requests a standardised set of information from all applicants.
The SNSF continues to use the following criteria for evaluating CVs:
- scientific qualifications of the applicant and the scientific quality and relevance of the research output, based on past achievements,
- ability of the applicant to conduct a research project under his/her own responsibility.
Why does the SNSF require a new CV format?
The SNSF has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which recommends that funders be explicit about the criteria used in evaluating the scientific productivity of applicants, taking due account of the scientific quality, value and impact of their entire research output (including datasets, software, prototypes) in addition to research publications.
How can I aptly describe my contribution in works cited in the CV?
The "Contributor Roles Taxonomy" can be helpful to describe roles in papers. Ideally, the roles are already listed transparently in the work itself, if possible.
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