Mentoring Program objectives
The IFPA community is constituted of outstanding senior, mid, and junior researchers from different regions and fields around the world. Although conferences and meetings are organized every year, early-career researcher (ECR) feedback has identified a need to create connections and networking opportunities between senior and junior researchers. As such the IFPA Mentoring Program was created to fill this gap and encourage a continuous exchange between these career levels. The purpose of the IFPA Mentoring Program is to take advantage of the existing knowledge, skills, and experience of our senior and mid-career researchers and facilitate the transfer of scientific skills to ECRs. Through this, it is our aim that mentees obtain advice and guidance on a range of professional development issues, to enable them to achieve their goals, including career planning, how best to socialize professionally, advocate for their career progression, and write publications and grants. It will provide the best opportunity for ECRs to build and maintain successful careers in placental and reproductive sciences.
Mentors
Mentors will volunteer their time and expertise. Mentors should complete the application form, provide a written paragraph outlining their experience as a mentor, and a statement about their approach to mentorship. This document should be sent as a PDF document to IFPAMentor@gmail.com and will be central for the matching criteria.
Mentees
To apply to the IFPA mentoring program, mentees must:
- Be IFPA members.
- ECRs in their last formal years of training or
- Have completed a Ph.D. or equivalent degree within the last eight years
Mentees will provide a curriculum vitae and letter of intention explaining why they want to participate in the program and their topics of interest to IFPAMentor@gmail.com and complete the application form which will be central for the matching criteria.
Criteria for matching mentors and mentees
Mentors and mentees will be matched by an IFPA committee. Selection will be based on the field of research and the interest of the mentee and mentor. In finding a good match, the mentor should have an appropriate viewpoint for the mentee and experience in the career path the mentee wishes to take.
Mentoring impact
Our short-term goal is that the mentoring will last for one to three years. This will allow the mentor to advise the mentees on several career milestones and to develop skills for their future career goals in reproductive research.
Our long-term goal is to develop a culture of reflective practice in mentorship within IFPA and to generate well-trained mentees who themselves would become future mentors, willing to pass on both their own and their mentor’s experiences and advice to ECRs, creating an engaged and collaborative community full of opportunity within IFPA, which thereby aids global placental and pregnancy research.
If you have any questions, please contact us at IFPAmentor@gmail.com