Call for Online Mentoring Programme 2021/22

Sukurta: 22 September 2020

Background and aim

The ARQUS European University Alliance is a cooperation between the Universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon, Padua, and Vilnius. It is funded by the European Commission. High quality mentoring of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers is one of the main objectives of the ARQUS career development scheme. Among many activities, ARQUS aims to foster careers of early stage researchers. To this end, it has established a series of mentoring and support measures.

Terms of application

The entirely online-based programme is designed for doctoral candidates and early postdocs who are interested in professional support during the transition phase from predoc to postdoc.

Mentees will be matched with a mentor in the weeks after their successful application. Mentor and mentee meet for a minimum of three one-hour virtual sessions over the course of six months. To ensure a clear focus on strategic (personal) decisions and/or further career steps of interdisciplinary researchers, guiding materials have been designed. Additionally, mentees will take part in six one-and-a-half-hour training sessions to strengthen their networking skills and learn how to get the most out of a mentoring relationship. Mentors will have the opportunity to participate in a regular mentors’ lounge.

Trainer and host for both mentees and mentors is Dr Karin Grasenick, an expert who is responsible for the “High Potential Programme” of the Human Brain Project and author of a mentoring handbook.

The ARQUS Online Mentoring Programme for Doctoral and Postdoctoral Researchers opens the application period from 22 February to 18 April, in order to start the Programme in June 2021. The aim of this programme is to support the establishment of sustainable mentoring relationships between early career researchers and established researchers from the ARQUS partner universities

Dates, forms and guidelines for mentees

Please use this application form for mentees (deadline – 18 April 2021). The application form must be signed by the applicant (e-signature is possible) and sent to . Successful applicants will be informed within a month after the deadline.

You may download the guidelines for the mentoring relationship (includes templates for minutes from the session and mentoring contract).

Dates and topics for the mentee training sessions (always Tuesdays at 15:00–16:30 CET):

15 June 2021: Mentee welcome, getting to know peer group, basics & visions for the mentoring relationship
5 October 2021: Goal setting & career planning: mentoring-specific and in general
9 November 2021: efficient social media use for networking
14 December 2021: publication strategies
11 January 2022: management of expectations by supervisors/project leads
8 February 2022: evaluation

Further contents of the training sessions can be determined between the peer group and the trainer (Dr Karin Grasenick).

More information about the programme here.