Write a research statement for an academic job application
A compelling research statement showing my agenda, past contributions, future plans, and fit with the hiring department.
The prompt
Help me write a research statement for an academic job application.
Position and institution type: [e.g. "assistant professor, R1 sociology department", "lecturer, teaching-focused university", "postdoc"]
Page limit: [e.g. "2 pages"]
My research program in one sentence: [DETAILS]
Past and current projects: [findings, publications, grants, collaborations]
Future agenda: [next 2-3 projects, 5-year plan, funding I would target]
Department fit: [faculty I could collaborate with, centers, resources, courses I could link to]
How I involve students: [DETAILS]
Structure:
1. An opening that states the big question my work addresses and why it matters, in terms a non-specialist on the committee understands.
2. Past and current work as a coherent arc, organized by theme rather than paper-by-paper, highlighting contribution and impact.
3. Future research: concrete, fundable projects with timelines and target funders.
4. Fit and mentoring: how the work fits this department and involves students.
Rules: claim what I actually did (be clear about my role in collaborative work), avoid jargon in the first page, and keep within the page limit. Mark unverified grant names or deadlines as [CONFIRM].
Return the statement, then notes on what to tailor for each institution type.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Career & Job Search prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "2 pages"
- DETAILS
- findings, publications, grants, collaborations
- next 2-3 projects, 5-year plan, funding I would target
- CONFIRM
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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