The Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) are continuing their partnership to deliver Mentoring and Career Development events for NIHR funded researchers for the next three years.
The Academy’s highly praised Mentoring programme, which offers one-to-one support for biomedical and health researchers including clinical academics, recently celebrated fifteen years of mentoring and matching over 700 mentoring pairs, marked by the #mentoringat15 campaign.
The Academy promotes a widely acclaimed developmental model of mentoring. The emphasis is on mentees being supported to find their own solutions to the challenges of a career in research, rather than provision of directional advice or patronage.
The programme is UK-wide, allowing researchers to select a mentor outside their institution and/or field of research. This enables them to draw on more diverse perspectives, seek independent advice and speak more freely. Mentors are picked from a large pool of senior researchers across the biomedical and health sector, including Academy Fellows, NIHR Senior Investigators and NIHR Research Professors.
Dr Suzanne Candy, Director of Biomedical Grants and Policy at the Academy of Medical Sciences, said:
“The Academy’s Mentoring programme recognises that support and guidance are vital for academic trailblazers to forge a successful career. For mentees, having someone senior give them dedicated time is incredibly valuable. It helps to build their self-confidence – we often hear things like, “if it wasn’t for my mentor, I wouldn’t be in research today”.
“The Academy’s Fellows and other senior researchers invest an immeasurable amount of voluntary time in the Mentoring programme. This generosity stems from each Fellow’s passion for developing the next generation of talented researchers.
“I look forward to continuing the partnership with NIHR and other funding partners to deliver Mentoring and Career Development events, creating a more supportive research culture across the sector.”
Dr Athanasios Saratzis, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer and Academy mentee, said:
“The mentorship provided by the Academy has been life and career changing for me. Crucially it has helped me find a senior academic surgeon who understands my research challenges. Having a mentor outside my immediate work environment has allowed me to deal with these challenges more efficiently and plan my career a lot better.”
Dr Lisa Cotterill, Director, NIHR Trainee Coordinating Centre, said:
“Mentorship is hugely valued by clinical academics as they progress through their medical research careers and the Department of Health and Social Care and NIHR have invested in the Academy of Medical Sciences scheme since its inception.
“We have many examples of successful NIHR researchers who have benefited from this scheme and I would encourage all our eligible award holders to take advantage of the truly excellent mentors on offer, which now include NIHR's own Senior Investigators and Research Professors.”
This partnership also supports a programme of Career Development events, organised by the Academy throughout the year and around the country. These events focus on career development training for aspiring researchers, including clinical academics, covering topics such as career planning, grant writing, Fellowship interviews, presentation skills, as well as mentoring and coaching skills. The networking sessions and inspirational talks from Academy Fellows and senior researchers provided have been a great success. The events are delivered regionally, tailored to local need and are open to both clinical and non-clinical early career researchers of all stages with no charge for attendees.
Find out more about the Mentoring programme here