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Academic Career Pathways (Research and Teaching)

You are responsible for preparing and submitting your application to the Secretary of the FC for the institution to which your office or post is assigned via the online portal and by the deadline date specified in the Timetable.

You should complete the relevant online application and provide evidence and examples that best support your case for promotion/progression and clearly demonstrate how you meet the Assessment Criteria, referring to the Indicators of Excellence for guidance. 

Applicants are encouraged to present their case for promotion in a concise manner, avoiding duplication where possible.

Applicants are expected to apply the principles of the San Francisco Declaration of Research Assessment (DORA).  More information on DORA can be viewed here.

Those who applied for the same office in the previous year's exercise (2023) will be considered re-applicants.  Please refer to the section on references for further details.

This section sets out certain requirements relating to the form and basic content of required information.

 

What to include in your application

When completing the application form via the applicant portal, you will be guided through the following sections of the form:

Application Details

  • Which office you are applying for, choosing from Professor (Grade 12), Professor (Grade 11), Associate Professor (Grade 10) or Clinical Professor.
  • If you are applying for an Associate Professorship (Grade 10), you must indicate whether you want your application to be evaluated by reference to Option 1 weighting (research-weighted) or Option 2 weighting (teaching-weighted).  These options are explained in more detail in the Scoring section. You are advised to discuss this issue with your Head of Institution and/or CV mentor.
  • If you are applying for a Professorship (Grade 12), Professorship (Grade 11) or a Clinical Professorship, you will be asked to provide the proposed title for your Professorship/Clinical Professorship, should your application for promotion be successful.  Your title should be relevant to your field, and you should discuss and agree the proposed title with your Head of Institution before submitting your application.
  • You will be asked if your application is interdisciplinary/cross-departmental. If you believe your application is, please ensure your personal statement explains the interdisciplinary/cross-departmental nature of your work and indicates those institutions which your work mostly concerns.
  • You will be asked if you believe that contextual factors and/or COVID impact factors should be taken into consideration when evaluating your application.  More details on this can be found in the Personal Statement section.

Personal Details

These details will be pre-populated but can be edited if necessary.  If you use a different surname professionally, please provide it in this section.

Personal Statement

You must include a personal statement* in support of your application, which explains your case for promotion, and demonstrates how you meet the Assessment Criteria of the office to which you are applying. Where applicable, you should highlight information about your achievements since your last promotion. 

With regard to the evidence provided of research/scholarship, you should make clear your role and contribution in large, multi-author publications. You might also wish to highlight key advances set out in your papers. If your research results do not take the form of conventional scholarly publications, you should provide information about this.  With regard to researcher development (where applicable), you should include a self-assessment of the impact of your work on your research team.

If you consider your teaching and/or research to be interdisciplinary/cross-departmental, you should explain clearly the interdisciplinary/cross-departmental aspects of your work and indicate which of the University institutions your work mostly concerns. 

Student feedback is an important factor in assessing the effectiveness of teaching, course development and innovation. Therefore, your self-assessment should take into account student feedback on the courses you have taught or are teaching. The Head of Institution may comment on this self-assessment in the Institutional Statement. It is acknowledged that some institutions do not have formal processes for gathering student feedback.  In these cases, reference to informal student feedback can be included, although such feedback should not be directly solicited from students.

With regard to teaching duties (if applicable), you should include a self-assessment of the impact of your work on students. 

*Please note, the personal statement has a limit of 1,000 words.

 

Contextual Factors and COVID Impact Statements

You are encouraged to record any Contextual Factors that have affected your performance over the last five years.  Contextual factors may include, but are not limited to: part-time working, ill health, disability, caring responsibilities and periods of prolonged leave such as maternity, parental leave or bereavement. These details should be provided in the separate Contextual Factors section, which has a word limit of 500 words.

The University recognises that many research and teaching staff will have faced difficulties in carrying out their usual duties during the COVID-19 pandemic.  We therefore welcome a COVID Impact Statement (limit of 1,000 words) from you detailing the impact on your current or future work, where relevant.  This may include issues with access to labs and other resources due to building closures, access to primary data or opportunities to travel abroad to disseminate research or other circumstances. It may also include impacts as a result of caring responsibilities for children and/or other dependents, mental health issues such as heightened stress and anxiety over this period, or other disability related impacts.

If you choose to provide Contextual Factors which include health-related matters, the Faculty Committee assessing your application may refer you to Occupational Health, in order to obtain specialist medical advice about the impact of these matters on your duties.  It is important to note that providing Contextual Factors and/or a COVID Impact Statement will not have a detrimental effect on any application for promotion, nor will an Occupational Health referral.

 

Curriculum Vitae

This section can be completed using the online layout on the form or uploaded as a PDF.  Your CV should include:

  • Professional history, including all current and previous professional appointments held.  Please include start dates and (where applicable) end dates.
  • Education and Qualifications, including details of degrees, diplomas and other qualifications, and where and when obtained.
  • Appointments and Affiliations, including memberships of professional bodies, learned societies, advisory bodies, peer review activities (Grants, journals, books etc), editorships etc, with start, and where relevant, end dates.
  • Prizes, Awards and Honours, including elections to prestigious professional/scientific bodies, providing the full name of the awarding/electing body and the date (year) of award/election.
Research and Research Leadership

In this section, you will be asked to provide information in the following sub-sections:

  • Grants: details of major external grants and contracts awarded (including values and dates), both current and over the last 5 years, together with the names of co-investigators where applicable.
  • Publications: see below for more details on this.
  • Talks and Research Associations, including a list of major lectures/seminars, or other research presentations (with month and year), and details of postdoctoral and other researchers, including visiting academics, with whom you are or have been directly associated in the recent past.
  • Other Scholarly Contributions, which can be additional information about other contributions or work that you wish to be taken into account that has not already been set out in your application.

Publications

You should include details of your publications, as follows:

  • An up-to-date list of publications, set out in accordance with the conventions of the relevant academic discipline.   
  • The publication list should include only work that has been published, is in the public domain, and is available for consideration.
  • Work in progress or completed but not yet published, including proofs and pre-prints, must not be included.  
  • Citation data, in disciplines where this is appropriate, may be included; consideration of an application will not be prejudiced if citation data are not included.  
  • Copies of publications must not be included.
  • The publication list should be in a clear chronological order, stating for each publication (including any books) the year of publication, and page numbers and number of pages (where available*). Peer-reviewed publications should be listed separately.  Where relevant, you should clearly mark publications since your last promotion.
  • Please note the points above are intended as guidance only.  Applicants are encouraged to follow disciplinary norms when preparing their publications list, which may differ from the above.

*It is recognised that page numbers and numbers of pages may not be available for online publications.
 

Definition of “published”:

Work is regarded as published if it is traceable in ordinary catalogues and if copies are obtainable at the time of application, or at some previous time, by members of the public through normal trade channels; proofs of papers and pre-prints not yet published are not submissible.  

The list can include work published electronically where it is regarded as published in the same formal sense as a journal or book. This includes free electronic journals that are refereed and accessible to the public.  Placing a paper on a University webpage does not count as publication but electronic publication of invited and/or contributed talks published as part of the proceedings of a Higher Education Institution or related body is acceptable provided hard copies are available in published form.  

Non-standard contributions:

For disciplines where the communication of research results is not, or is only partly, in the form of conventional scholarly publication, other forms of contribution should be listed.

Co-authored and multi-authored publications

Applicants should provide details of their role and contribution in co-authored and multi-authored publications, as explained in the section on the Personal Statement.

Teaching and/or Researcher Development

Evidence of teaching and/or researcher development (to the extent relevant in each case) should include: 

  • A record of all under and postgraduate courses taught over such a period as to demonstrate evidence of fulfilment of the teaching criteria (normally not less than three years). 
  • An up-to-date list of postgraduate students formally supervised, including results, over the period of employment.
  • Details of course developments and pedagogical innovation.
  • The annual number of hours of teaching undertaken in your Institution (stint)
  • Details of administrative work that the Institution has agreed to be equivalent to part of the annual teaching stint. 
  • Details of any regular and substantial contribution to the teaching programmes of other Institutions.
  • Details of research groups over such a period as you consider necessary.
  • Summary of examining duties.

Samples of course descriptions, hand-outs, bibliographies, summary evidence of student and/or researcher feedback may be included, up to a maximum of ten sides of A4. 

If your duties do not include teaching, or you have been formally dispensed from discharging teaching duties on a temporary basis, you should make this clear in your application, giving the reasons and dates.

If you have been formally dispensed from discharging teaching duties on a temporary basis, but wish your teaching contribution to be assessed, you should make this clear in your application to allow your teaching contribution to be assessed by the Committees (as part of the Teaching and Researcher Development criterion). You should provide evidence of this contribution while in employment at the University and/or its Colleges over at least the previous three years prior to the dispensation.

Please note, only teaching conducted at the University of Cambridge/its Colleges can be considered as part of your application.

 

College Teaching

You may include details of College(s) teaching and work undertaken as a College Director of Studies, in which case the name and College of the Senior Tutor should be given.

Clinical Work and Postgraduate Medical Teaching and Training

If you hold an Honorary NHS consultant contract, you should provide details of your contribution to postgraduate medical education and training.  Information provided in relation to teaching will be considered under the teaching criterion and information provided in relation to clinical duties will be considered under Service to the University and Academic Community. 

Clinical Veterinary Work and Postgraduate Veterinary Teaching and Training

If you are engaged in veterinary clinical work, you should provide details of your contribution to postgraduate veterinary teaching and training. Information provided in relation to teaching will be considered under the teaching criterion and information provided in relation to clinical duties will be considered under Service to the University and Academic Community.

Service to the University and Academic Community

You should provide a list of contributions other than in teaching and research undertaken in your Institution/School/University and any service to the academic community outside the University that you wish to have considered. This might include service on the central University bodies, working parties, reviews, engagement in widening participation activity, the design and delivery of outreach programmes, contribution to the subject undertaken outside the University, editorial work, contribution to academic societies and meetings, details of research management, of research groups and the creation and management of multi-institutional national/international research facilities. It may also include public engagement work.

If you hold an Honorary NHS consultant contract you should include details of your participation in regional and national committees (e.g. Royal Colleges, General Medical Council) and bodies concerned with undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, as well as details of your clinical duties. 

If you are engaged in clinical veterinary work you should include details of your participation in regional and national committees and bodies concerned with postgraduate veterinary education, as well as details of your clinical duties.

Submission

The completed application should be submitted to the Secretary of the FC via the online portal and by the deadline date stated in the Timetable. Guidance on using the ACP portal can be found here.