Abstract

We will present ISGlobal’s ten years of experience with a Mentoring Program addressed to postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty, focusing on lessons learnt and some remaining challenges.
The main aim of ISGlobal’s Mentoring Program is to foster and guide the professional development of mentees. Mentors are always more senior than mentees and can be internal and/or external researchers. The direct supervisor of a given researcher cannot be his/her mentor. Mentors should help mentees to build self-confidence, share knowledge, skills, and experience, assist mentees in identifying personal strengths and career planning, and help mentees in finding the right connections for developing their own professional networks.
A mentoring committee coordinated by the scientific coordinator follows up on the program implementation, manages an annual survey addressed to mentors and mentees, and proposes and implements improvements. Some actions taken in the last years include targeted training for mentors and mentees, highlighting training for mentors with a gender perspective, and organization of career weeks to explore professional options beyond academia, among others.
According to the results from the mentees’ surveys, 84% of mentees consider that the program has helped them develop their professional career and 74 % rate the program as excellent or very good.
Some remaining challenges such as how to incorporate the gender perspective to improve the mentoring experience and how to design a mentoring program for RMAs are among the topics that we would like to discuss with you.