Tips & tricks

• General guidelines for Pure profiles

  • Preferably use a maximum of 300 words in total for personal information, research and teaching.
  • Write it like a biosketch that can be used for a conference submission or grant application. This will make it more inviting for peers and press to read it. See below for more information on writing a biosketch.
  • Write in the third person. For example, ‘Cees Kleverlaan is a professor in Dental Materials Science at ACTA’ or ‘Sander Veraverbeke, earth system scientist at the Climate & Ecosystems Change research group’.
  • Focus on your most important research topics and achievements. What do you want to be known for?
  • Focus on research or teaching activities related to VU Amsterdam (or ACTA). Describe other academic activities only if relevant to your VU Amsterdam (or ACTA) research career, and be concise.
  • Do you expect to be less active in keeping your profile up to date? Make sure that you are less specific in, for example, years of experience.
  • You don’t have to mention your PhD in the biosketch. For this you may use the special field Academic qualification (including award date and the name of the university).
  • Use the correct spelling of the name of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam or the mother universities (for ACTA).

  If you have any questions or would like help with your content, please contact Pure Support, the press officer of your faculty or pers@vu.nl.

• What is a biosketch?

  A biosketch (or bio) is a brief description of your professional identity. It usually ranges from 50 to 300 words. In your biosketch you promote your research and other achievements.

• Personal information: promote yourself

  • Introduce yourself and describe your professional situation by giving your name, degree(s), and current institutional affiliation.
  • While describing your research, keep in mind you don’t only write for your peers, but also for a broader audience, for example journalists. Use interesting key words they would be looking for and keep the language understandable for the public.
  • Also describe the societal impact of your research and teaching if applicable.
  • This is also a good place to mention any awards, both for research and teaching. The advice is to only mention the most important or prestigious awards. A complete list of your awards and grants can be registered in Pure, under prizes. You may also mention professional affiliations or involvement with national organizations. For example chairing a committee.
  • Are you a junior researcher? Focus on your more recent accomplishments.

• Research: your fit in the professional universe

  • First write down your main areas of focus/your expertise. And then communicate any accomplishments regarding these topics, especially if you’re the first researcher to develop a program or study an issue.
  • Are you a senior researcher? Promote your experience and describe your research accomplishments. Many will use the phrase ‘best known for’. As in ‘Cees Kleverlaan is best known for his work…’ or ‘Cees Kleverlaan is best known for creating…’. Avoid the use of academic titles (like ‘Prof. Dr.’) in the text; instead mention your substantive assignment, e.g ‘neuropsychologist’.
  • Are you a junior researcher? Be more specific about your expertise, interests and the focus of your research.

• Teaching: your impact

  Use bullets to sum up the subjects you teach. Do not use the name of the course you are teaching here, but name the subject of the course. Unless they are similar. This is to prevent you from having to adjust this part in the event of a name change, for example.

Questions about Pure or the VU Research Portal?