CONTACT INFO: raad.fadaak@gmail.com
DATE PRODUCED: JUNE 2025
REFERENCE URL: https://raadfadaak.me/narrativeCV-AI/
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Hi there,

Thanks for trying out this workflow. I hope that you find it helpful in your effort to produce a personalized, robust, and accurate narrative CV.

Remember that the narrative CV space, especially in Canada, is evolving very quickly. You should feel empowered to add your own sources to your notebook.

USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHETHER THE USE OF NOTEBOOKLM OR OTHER AI SUPPORT TOOLS ARE ALLOWED IN YOUR SPECIFIC FUNDING COMPETITION. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW/WHETHER YOU DISCLOSE YOUR USE OF AI APPROPRIATELY TO YOUR REVIEWERS OR FUNDING AGENCIES. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR PRIVACY OR DATA SECURITY - UPLOAD PRIVATE/PERSONAL INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I am providing this as part of a "harm reduction" approach to AI use for narrative CVs: I know researchers will be using this to make their Tri-Agency CVs, so I wanted to provide the most informed way possible for this to happen given my current understanding of the AI landscape.

Every narrative CV should be unique and reflect you as an individual researcher. AI can help us start writing, but you should finish it. It's your story, don't let a machine tell it for you.

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HOW TO USE:

The reference URL at the top of this document has all the instructions, but just in case you received this from somewhere else, or need repeat instructions:

First, you will need a Google account to access and use NotebookLM, as well as manage your own notebooks.
Google’s NotebookLM works by using individualized “notebooks”, which are populated by “sources” (think: PDFs, websites, YouTube transcripts, direct text, etc.), which are then used to influence the language model used to respond to your prompts. Think of it as a localized version of an AI chatbot – one that has a baseline understanding of the web, but is hyper-focused on the sources that you add to it.
The quickest way to get your narrative CV workspace up and running is clone the notebook I’ve made for narrative CVs here. Because NotebookLM doesn’t allow you to clone notebooks from one account to another, I’m also providing a downloadable ZIP file with all the PDFs and a txt file with all the additional URLs you’ll need to add to replicate this notebook on your own account.
1)	Set up a new notebook in your own Google NotebookLM space. Call it whatever you want, although “NarrativeCV” makes sense 
2)	Download the ZIP file I’m providing and unzip it to your computer
3)	Navigate to the “PDF sources” subfolder and upload each PDF as a “source” in your own notebook.
4)	Navigate back to the main unzipped folder and open the “Narrative CV - Other Sources.txt” file. 
5)	Click “+Add” in the Sources pane in NotebookLM, and then click “Website” under “Link”
6)	Copy and paste all of the URLs from the .txt file into the space provided
7)	You should have 19 total sources in your notebook.

From here, you will have a cloned copy of my own NarrativeCV notebook, which you can use to generate powerful example personal statements, most significant contributions statements, supervisory/mentorship statements, or a whole narrative CV. But it will be generic.
If you want to make your notebook personalized, follow the next steps, but be warned: you are responsible for your own decision to upload personal details into a public AI platform!:

8)	Upload your most up-to-date traditional CV, ideally in PDF format
9)	Add any/all open access publications directly into your notebook, either directly as PDFs and/or via URLs to the full text versions online
10)	Add any/all online articles, contributions, or other outputs including existing biographical sketches or personal pages to your notebook
a.	Essentially feed your notebook as much data about you as you’d like it to reference
b.	Remember, you can only have up to 50 sources in any given notebook (on the free plan)
11)	Once you are satisfied with the personalized sources of data you’ve added about yourself as a scholar, you can prompt NotebookLM in the “Chat” panel to produce a particular statement or section you’d like from the Tri-Agency CV. The more specific you are about what you’d like to emphasize, the better.
a.	My recommendation is to ask for outputs separately for each section (a personal statement, most significant contributions statement, supervisory/mentorship statement) and then workshop these together instead of asking it to just “build me a narrative CV”
12)	Double, triple, and quadruple check that the statement(s) provided by NotebookLM are accurate and summarize your research well. The more specific you are with your prompts, the better this will go for you (e.g., asking it to “write a narrative CV for me” will be much less useful than asking it to “write a significant contribution statement of 200-300 words about my work related to XYZ”). The outputs from the notebook prompts can be assembled and ideally re-written by you to form your narrative CV, or at least get inspiration.

