Inclusive Research Cultures Through Mentorship: a Practitioner-Researcher Dialogue

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

Call opens: 10 January 2025 (the link will be announced soon)

Proposal deadline: 31 January 2025

Decision communication: 28 February 2025

Registration deadline: 14 March 2025 (the link will be announced soon)