Mentoring

We provide a highly regarded mentoring programme for early career researchers. This is part of our work to make the UK the best place in the world to have a career in biomedical sciences.

Summary

Our mentoring programme matches post-doctoral and independent biomedical and health researchers with an Academy Fellow to provide one-to-one career development support. The scheme is designed to support researchers who are setting up their own research programme, or transitioning to independence.

What you'll gain

The programme has proven benefits for mentees in career development, securing grant funding and staying on a research pathway. 

Mentors gain insight into the needs of early career researchers and establish a strong connection with someone at a different career stage. Many also appreciate the chance to reflect, give back to the research community and gain satisfaction from seeing the growth of their mentee.

Video transcript

[Jane Clarke] I like teaching. I mean it just gives you a buzz and mentoring is another opportunity to spend time with really clever young people, develop relationships with people that can last you throughout your life. 

How you mentor will very much depend on who you're mentoring. Your relationship to that mentee, but the question of emotional intelligence, the listening, the giving space, the trust, all those apply to however you mentor and whoever you're mentoring. 

[Charalambos P. Kyriacou] It's not patronage at all. You're more of a mirror. You're more reflecting. So you're told something and you, you know, you discuss it, but I never say you should do this, you should do that. It's not really, you know, I'm older, I'm wiser, do this. It's not like that at all.

[Paul Morgan] I think it makes one more thoughtful. It makes one stand back and think a little bit more about the person. I think it makes one a better supervisor as well because one reacts to the people in one's lab in a different way. One doesn't always think about the project. One thinks, oh, how can I help this person develop their career a little bit more perhaps than would have previously. So, I think it's changed me. It's made me perhaps a better supervisor, maybe even a nicer person. I don't know.

[Fiona Karet] The future health of our nation depends on developing the leaders of the future. And in that respect, current Academy fellows as mentors can play an enormous role in helping that happen.

Who can apply

You can apply if you are a biomedical or health researcher at the transitioning to independence stage in your research career.. 

All applicants to our starter grants for clinical lecturers, Springboard grants, FLIER and cross-sector experience grants are invited to take part in the mentoring programme.  

All current Academy grant holders and programme participants from any scheme and all HIVE alumni are invited to take part.

You can apply if you hold an eligible award funded by one of our external partners, including the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, the Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Foundation.

Duration

Agreed between mentor and mentee 

When to apply

Throughout the year 

How to apply

Log into the Academy portal or create a new account and follow the steps to register as a mentee. You will be able to select a shortlist of mentors and we will approach them on your behalf. 

To find out more about the programme, you can attend one of our free mentoring masterclasses, which are listed on our events page. If you have questions about the programme, please contact us at [email protected]. 

What participants say

The Academy’s mentoring programme is entirely unique in that there is such a range and breadth of outstanding medical academics to choose from, and their structured mentoring skills workshop attended by both mentees and mentors ensures expectations are both realistic and similar from the outset, which helps ensure the longevity of the relationship.

Professor Chris Gale

It’s about the most altruistic thing we do in our professional lives. There is that glow of satisfaction, if and when your mentee does well, that really is the greatest reward.

Professor Fiona Karet FMedSci

Supporters

• Arthritis UK
• Association of Physicians
• British Heart Foundation
• British Thoracic Society
• Clinician Scientist Fellows
• Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
• Diabetes UK
• Medical Research Council
• Medical Research Foundation
• Wellcome

Further information on mentoring

The mentoring programme is overseen by a Mentoring Advisory Group consisting of Fellows, emerging research leaders and early career researchers with experience and interest/expertise in this area.