Stakeholder Workshops

Academics are being evaluated almost constantly: when they seek a new job, when they request funding, when they are candidates for promotions, prizes or for special appointments. In all these scenarios the evaluators have to make decisions, which are influenced by the way the academics present themselves. There is, however, no standardised presentation format in which academics can present all their skills and achievements. It is the central aim of the ACUMEN project to create a standard design for such a portfolio of the skills and achievements of the academic to support evaluators reaching decisions and to enhance evaluands’ chances of achieving their goals by presenting their careers in an effective manner.

In a series of workshops in the autumn and winter of 2013-2014, the ACUMEN portfolio will be presented to groups of stakeholders and potential users.  Scheduled events include:

• 24 January 2014 Presenting academic careers and achievement – a stakeholder workshop – Brussels (BEL):  In this workshop the structure of the envisioned portfolio will be presented through detailed scenarios. Workshop participants will be asked to take part in focus groups to evaluate the portfolio structure and to provide feedback or suggest possible improvements to the current set-up. We invite evaluators to take part in this exciting venture, since we believe the exchange of perspectives is valuable to all parties and especially to ACUMEN.
•  The documents to be tested and evaluated during the workshop day are available in draft versions. They will be evaluated and updated after the workshop, before they are submitted as project deliverables, but they are available online in temporary versions, in the list below. For additional information regarding the workshop or the documentation, please contact .

At the workshop, the following documents will be tested and discussed:

• 13 December 2013 – Early Career Academics Workshop – Madrid (ESP): At this full-day workshop, invited researchers from different fields and career stages have been presented with the ACUMEN portfolio. They were asked to approach working with the portfolio from several angles in specially developed exercises. The goal of this workshop was to provide the ACUMEN team with improved insights on the portfolio usage, predominantly but not exclusively from an early career perspective.

• 30 October 2013: Crafting Your Career – Utrecht (NLD): This event was jointly organised by the Rathenau Institute and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS, Leiden University) for early career researchers, who are exploring their academic potential and considering career paths. Between the plenary sessions, participants were introduced to about the ACUMEN portfolio and received tips for presenting their own CV in a speeddate.