Mentoring and Mentorship Schemes
To generate high-quality research, having a good network and support structure around you is a sometimes forgotten, but essential element of a research career. A mentor can offer a supportive relationship through the ups and downs that feature in any career. Receiving advice from an impartial, experienced academic can help you to navigate through challenging milestones at different stages of your career for example:
• identifying a research group, research area or project
• balancing academia with clinical work, teaching or family commitments
• supporting the development of leadership skills
• feeling fed up or struggling with an aspect of your work
• getting support when research projects are not working out well
• applying for grants, fellowships, studentships or research positions
• responding to reviewers’ comments
• presenting or publishing your work
• navigating a dedicated period of research such as a PhD
• developing your CV and progressing to the next stage in your career
• developing collaborations
• starting your own research group
• supervising others (PhD students, etc.).
This may be an informal relationship or can be a more formal arrangement. You may have a single mentor for all discussions or develop multiple relationships where you seek advice for different aspects of your work. The Royal College of Pathologist does not have a dedicated programme, but there are several suitable schemes. Please do not hesitate to contact the Chair of the R&D Committee for informal discussion.
Pathological Society
The Pathological Society (PathSoc) recognises the challenges of an academic career and the need for impartial advice. This is especially true in our more junior researchers and sometimes it can be difficult to find a mentor from outside of your immediate area of work. Therefore, the PathSoc Academic Mentoring Scheme was launched in the academic year 2018-2019 and there is anticipated to be a yearly intake and you can get in touch for more information via [email protected], as well as looking out for emails from PathSoc.
Our scheme is aimed at foundation doctors up to clinical lecturers (or equivalent) as mentees and from clinical lecturers up to any senior academics as mentors. We have a diverse range of mentors with varied experience and expertise involved in the scheme and welcome new mentors with valuable experience to offer. For more information, click here.
Academy of Medical Sciences
The Academy's one-to-one mentoring programme provides post-doctoral and independent biomedical and health researchers with career development support by pairing them with an Academy fellow. To support the continued development and delivery of the mentoring programme we have a small advisory group comprising fellows, emerging research leaders and early career researchers with experience and interest or expertise in this area.
If you are interested in getting involved in this mentoring programme, please follow the link to learn more about eligibility, the resources available and the support we offer to both mentees and mentors. Additionally, you can read what the mentees and mentors themselves have to say about the programme through case studies. The Academy promotes an enabling, non-directive approach to help mentees make critical decisions through the developmental model of mentoring. Mentors provide a framework for making career choices and act as a signpost to information and resources. For more information, click here.