As a recent initiative of the LIFT Inclusiveness Committee, a mentoring scheme was launched. In total 22 mentees, mostly early career researchers, and 18 mentors, have been matched in a mentoring scheme. LIFT based the mentoring scheme set-up on the successful scheme of the Animal Welfare Research Network (awrn.co.uk).
Mentors and mentees were invited to join through a sign-up form and thereafter matched into pairs or trios based on their interests. We sincerely thank all mentors for signing up! All who registered could find a meaningful match, and this also provided young post-docs with the opportunity to mentor juniors and thereby gaining experience. The scheme also matched some researchers, on request, at similar career stages to share their experiences (peer mentoring).
All participants were made aware of their match prior to the ISAE LIFT Satellite Meeting in the Netherlands, to provide them with the opportunity to meet in person. This indeed happened, and several mentees met their mentors in person at the venue of Utrecht University. For example, as the cover photo shows, Océane Schmitt was happy to meet her mentor Marek Špinka in Utrecht.
The mentoring scheme will last a year and will be evaluated afterwards. If you are interested in joining a potential new round of the mentoring scheme, please get in touch by email (liftanimalwelfare@gmail.com).
Written by Irene Camerlink
