Dusseldorf, May 26-27, 2025

Committee Lead: Ekaterina Masetkina MA, Michaela Gindl MA, Dr Dagmar Höppel, Dr Evelyne Rusdea (EUMENT-NET) & Dr Ola Thomson (COST Action VOICES) will host this year’s event at the Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Dusseldorf, Germany, home to the pioneering and highly successful SelmaMeyerMentoring programme. HHU is renowned for its cutting-edge research across various disciplines. The university also hosts the Life Science Center, a state-of-the-art facility supporting innovative startups and companies in life sciences and related technologies.

Inclusive Research Cultures Through Mentorship: a Practitioner-Researcher Dialogue. Exploring the role of mentorship in shaping inclusive and transformative research culture

This event brings together mentorship managers and coordinators, researchers, personal development officers, and stakeholders to share their expertise, experiences, challenges, wins big and small, and evidence-based approaches to inclusive mentoring. By bridging practical experience and academic knowledge, we aim to elevate mentorship as a tool for inclusive research cultures in which diversity is a critical building block for the common good.

Join us for a collaborative dialogue to exchange good practice, cross pollinate new ideas, and build connections across disciplines, as well as learn from non-academic settings. Together, we will explore how mentoring can become a powerful tool for cultivating equitable and innovative research environments and facilitate institutional change for inclusive gender equality.

Objectives:

• Share practical knowledge of design, implementation, measurement, and evaluation of mentorship programmes
• Exchange ideas with researchers who bring fresh thinking from other fields to inform mentoring practices in academia and research. Explore how academic expertise can inspire new approaches
• Discuss alternative mentoring approaches with champions of innovative models like reverse mentoring. Challenge traditional practices and explore creative ways to make mentoring and research culture more inclusive and intersectional
• Build meaningful connections with others who are passionate about inclusive gender equality. Create opportunities for collaboration and shared work in both research and practice
• Celebrate mentees of the SelmaMeyerMentoring programme who have completed their mentoring journeys

Participation options

Available scholarships

If you wish to present during the event, or/and receive a scholarship to attend by submitting a motivation letter, please follow this link https://forms.gle/hcxV7u33uHuYvhE79 

Call opens: 10 January 2025

Proposal deadline: 7 February 2025

Decision communication: end of February 2025

Registration: March 2025 (the link will be announced soon)

If you wish to attend the international expert exchange as an audience without a presentation or a scholarship, please save the date, as the open audience registration will be announced in March 2025.

Constanta Maritime University (Romania) and the European Mentoring Network (eument-net) are organising an international conference with a professional exchange session:

Mentoring – Potentials for the advancement of female careers in European academia and research and for Gender Equality Plans

02. – 03. September 2024, Constanţa, Romania

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to our upcoming international conference. The core aims are to share good practices and positive examples of mentoring programs designed for advancing female careers in academia and Gender Equality Plans (GEP) actions. The event will also provide excellent networking opportunities for developing joint actions in mentoring and overall gender equality.

Objectives of the conference:

1. Improve action based on mutual sharing and discussion on mentoring and overall gender equality.
2. Brochure on the variety of mentoring programs in Europe and GEP prerequisites.
3. Share good practices on mentoring as part of Gender Equality Plan and on changing organisational culture towards gender equality.

We welcome members of academic and research institutions, practitioners, governmental agencies and any other individuals interested in mentoring programs and GEP and institutions across Europe. Please read about the opportunities to take part in the Call for Contributions.

Venue: ATTENTION!  NEW VENUE!

Constanţa Maritime University / UNIVERSITATEA MARITIMA DIN CONSTANTA
Mircea cel Bătrân Street no. 104
Constanţa 900663, Romania

Here you can find the location on Google Maps!

Please find all the relevant travel information in our Constanţa travel guide: Constanţa Travel Guide

The program of the conference you can find here: Program eument-net Conference 2024

Please register for the conference HERE until August 15 or use the QR-Code below. For organisational reasons it is very important to register in advance!

We are looking forward to meet you in Constanţa!

Organizational Team:

Prof. Cristina Dragomir
Michaela Gindl
Dr. Dagmar Hoeppel
Ekaterina Masetkina
Dr. Evelyn Rusdea

Contact: ,  

On June, 12 at 10:30-12:00  Dr. Julie Batut (Universite Toulouse, FR) gives a talk on how to establish an inclusive and operational mentor-mentee relationship using the tools of collective intelligence. Mentoring plays a crucial role in personal and professional development, providing support and knowledge transfer between experienced mentors and people seeking to grow. Establishing a mentor-mentee relationship requires a shared understanding of the principles of mentoring and a solid foundation of trust and communication. A practical one-day workshop has therefore been created to build this relationship collectively. The tools used help to build bridges between people and clarify the needs, rights and duties of each person in the interests of an inclusive and active science.

You can find more information about Dr. Julie Batut HERE!

The talk is based on the publication:

Foncy, J., Kwapisz, M., Knibiehler, M. & Batut Jl. Collectively building a mentor–mentee relationship through a one-day workshop. Nat Biotechnol 41, 1829–1833 (2023). https://doi-org.insb.bib.cnrs.fr/10.1038/s41587-023-02056-4

Please apply to participate for free till June 11, 2024: https://forms.gle/SVzj8cFmJKP8ZpaQ7

You are welcome to invite your interested colleagues to the meeting.

Since 1998, the MuT mentoring program of Stuttgart (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany) has been supporting female scientists on their way to professorship. During this time, a considerable mentoring network has been built up and countless success stories of professorships among mentees have been celebrated. Current statistics and personal reports show, how important the mentoring program for women in science continues to be.

Over the past 25 years, Dagmar Hoeppel, the initiator of MuT mentoring and distinguished Vice President of eument-net, has not only paved the way for gender equality in academia in Germany, but has also set standards as a pioneer at the European level. Her vision and commitment to equal chances have not only crossed borders, but also paved the way for other ground-breaking initiatives, such as European Mentoring Network, eument-net. The European cooperation in the field of mentoring, which Dagmar Hoeppel has driven forward, is a shining example of her ability to think beyond national borders and connect people. Building networks, transferring knowledge and promoting mutual understanding have always been central elements of her work. Dagmar´s sound scientific findings in mentoring and gender equality have not only laid the foundation for the development of guidelines and programs, but have also contributed to the global discussion on equality and inclusion.

Eument-net would like to extend the heartfelt congratulations to the eldest mentoring for female scientists in Germany and to thank everyone, who contributed to the success of this program. As one of the first programs of its kind Germany-wide, the MuT mentoring program for female scientists in Stuttgart has made an important contribution to the advancement of women in science. It has supported women in developing their talents, achieving their goals and overcoming obstacles.

Eument-net wishes our member MuT program continued success on your journey. May MuT mentoring encourage the next generations of female scientists and continue to be an inspiring role model for other countries and universities!

Anniversary celebration on December 8, 2023: Ekaterina Masetkina, Dr. Dorett Schneider, Dr. Dagmar Hoeppel, Michaela Gindl, Dr. Christina Kurmeyer (left to right)

In October 2023, our eument-net member „kite-mentoring“ program will celebrate its anniversary „Flying to new heights with kite-mentoring – 10 years of empowering women“ at the University of Freiburg. The European mentoring network will support this celebration with a joint International conference on 12-13 October 2023 for its members and all interested parties.

Two keynote speakers will discuss gender equality and mentoring in academia:
Prof. Dr. Tomas Brage (Lund University, Sweden) – “Gender bias in academia – a threat to academic values”

Prof. Dr. Marieke van den Brink (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands) – “Mentoring in higher education – supporting career development and organizational change”

AGENDA
Day 1, Thursday, October 12, 2023

13:00   Registration for the conference
14:00   Opening & all about „kite-mentoring“
16:00   Key Notes & discussion
18:15    Networking in the lounge with finger food & refreshments

Day 2, Friday, October 13, 2023

09:30  Eument-net Expert Exchange with input from Prof. Marieke van den Brink
12:30   Lunch & Get Together
13:30   General assembly with special focus on future development and activities of eument-net
15:30   End of eument-net meeting

Learn more about how the „kite-mentoring“ program in Freiburg empowers women in STEM fields (Dr. Evelyn Rusdea), meet mentees, alumnae and mentors involved in the program during flash talks, speak with mentoring tandems from academia and industry, and hear from different role models, such as an alumna who recently held a professorship. There will be also various other offers like a  small career fair for mentees and alumnae, including a brief presentation of the invited partners from industry. The first conference day will end with networking in the Lounge of IMBIT including finger food, snacks and refreshments.

The second conference day will begin with a Eument-net Expert Exchange involving Prof. Dr. Marieke van den Brink. In her keynote contribution Prof. van den Brink will explore the effects and possibilities of sponsorship and how inclusive gender equality approaches can be integrated into mentoring programs. This will be followed by an interactive session on sharing outcomes and international expert exchange. The participants will discuss in small groups from the perspectives of mentoring programme coordinators, gender equality officers, career advisors, personnel developers, but also of mentees, mentors, institutions and external drivers. The key aspects will be in the focus of the exchange:

•           recruitment of mentors and mentors’ skills
•           attitudes of institutions/awareness within institutions
•           external influences/driving forces

The Eument-net Expert Exchange will end with a joint discussion in the plenary.

During the lunch break, we cordially invite all the eument-net members and interested parties to an informal Get Together. After the lunch there will be the Annual General Assembly of eument-net. We will focus on future development and activities of eument-net as a network and especially on the members interests and needs. Please bring your ideas.

For those who stay in Freiburg after the conference on Friday, October 13 „kite-mentoring“ and eument-net will organize a joint dinner and social networking event at 19:00 for all attendees at „Paradies“ – a traditional beer garden in Freiburg.

Register for the conference here today – we look forward to meeting you in Freiburg!

Final application deadline is extended, we kindly ask you to register by October, 1, 2023.

You can find the detailed program of the conference HERE.

Venue: The Conference will take place on both days at

Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg
Faculty of Engineering
IMBIT building (Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology)
Georges Köhler Allee 201
79110 Freiburg, Germany

The joint dinner & networking event will take place on Friday October 13 at 19:00 at
Restaurant „Paradies“
Mathildenstr. 26
79106 Freiburg, Germany

Accommodation: Book your own accommodation or take advantage of the contingent of rooms pre-reserved for eument-net members at Hotel Stadt Freiburg near the conference venue. 20 single rooms are available for the special price of €110 per night (incl. breakfast buffet); double rooms are available for the special price of €145 per night (incl. breakfast for two people). Participants are able to reserve rooms directly with the hotel up until 12 September 2023 using the keyword “eument-net”. Please only book in writing by sending an email to .

Hotel Stadt Freiburg
https://www.hotel-stadt-freiburg.de/

Breisacher Str. 84
79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

In case of requests, please do not hesitate to contact Ekaterina Masetkina, eument-net chair () or Evelyn Rusdea, kite-mentoring coordinator and member of eument-net executive board ().

Invited experts Lisa Kamlade and Thomas Berghoefer from the Genera Network are going to give a keynote talk based on their knowledge and experience regarding gender equality in higher education and research. The experts will offer an European view on mentoring as a measure to improve for gender equality.

Please save the date of the next Eument-net Expert Exchange:
September, 6th 10:00-12:00 a.m. CET, online

We invite all eument-net members and interested mentoring experts to discuss and exchange on your approaches and experiences towards gender equality within your current or future mentoring programs.

The eument-net expert exchange will be carried out digitally via ZOOM. Please enter your name and e-mail to get a link for the meeting.

GENERA is a gender equality network in Physics in European research area. Since 2015 GENERA has boosted awareness on the issue of gender equity in physics. The GENERA consortium prepared all tools necessary to tailor and implement gender equality plans (GEPs) and gender equality measures in the participating institutions. In the GENERA toolbox, for example, more than 100 good practice measures to support gender equality in physics institutions have been compiled. All necessary steps to implement a GEP have been described in the GENERA Roadmap. Guided by a project internal evaluation the individual institutions created and implemented their GEPs.

Thomas Berghoefer, Senior Scientist

Copyright: PRIVAT

Dr. Thomas W. Berghoefer studied Physics and Astrophysics in Marburg, Bochum, and received a PhD in Munich. He won a Humboldt fellowship to work at the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley. During his active research career, he was working in X-ray and EUV astronomy at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, UC Berkeley, and University of Hamburg. While working at the University of Hamburg he was appointed as one of the women’s representatives in the faculty of physics. He holds a degree in higher education didactics and e-learning methods from the University of Hamburg. Later he became a science programme manager in the German research funding system of the federal government. He coordinated several larger European consortia on research funding, R&D, and gender in physics. Thomas Berghöfer is currently the coordinator of GENERA Network.

Lisa Kamlade, Project manager

Copyright: PRIVAT

Lisa Kamlade studies business psychology (M.Sc.) in Hamburg and works as a full-time project manager at DESY, Hamburg.

In the GENERA project she was the Implementation Manager coordinating between all relevant stakeholders involved in the implementation of a Gender Equality Plan at DESY. After GENERA project she worked in the European project ACT as a Community of Practice (CoP) facilitator. Alongside, Lisa is the vice-coordinator of the GENERA Network since 2018 and she’s part of the European project Einstein Telescope (INFRA-DEV).   LinkedIn Profile