The ARC Centres Mentoring Program was launched in June to over 200 members of the 12 participating Centres
A new expanded mentoring network vastly increases the experience pool available for ECRs and others in 12 participating ARC Centres providing:
- structured mentoring with ongoing support and oversight
- access to a range of resources and peer-mentoring groups
- large, diverse pool of mentors and mentees
- for both researchers and professional staff.
Allowing members of the participating Centres to access mentors in other Centres significantly increases the pool of experiences and skills ‘on offer’.
“We are excited to see the connections which evolve from this initiative,” says FLEET COO Dr Tich-Lam Nguyen. “This truly is a unique opportunity for participants to connect with researchers from 12 Centres of Excellence across HASS and STEM fields”.
It’s up to each mentoring pair to decide how much time to invest but the best connections will typically involve monthly communication, via whatever channel suits.
In addition to high-quality research, a shared objective of all ARC Centres is to build Australia’s future scientific workforce. Mentoring has been a vital component of this process, with benefits in skill enhancement and career progression and work-life balance.
Mentoring has proven valuable for all participants, with feedback from individual Centres’ past mentoring programs confirming value for mentors as well as mentees.
The collaboration will use the Mentorloop platform, which has previously been used successfully in three Centres including FLEET and the national mentoring program IMNIS, allowing structured mentoring, support and oversight, as well as resources for mentees and mentors.
The Cross-Centre program complements FLEET’s other mentoring programs, including industry mentors, group mentoring via training sessions, women in FLEET, and ECR participation in Centre governance committees.
FLEET members can express their interest to participate in this program at this link: fleet.org.au/fleetmentoring
The new collaboration currently includes the following Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence, with capacity for new Centres to join as they come online:
- ARC Centre for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (Astro 3D)
- ARC Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S)
- ARC Centre for Children and Families Over the Life Course
- ARC Centre for Dark Matter Particle Physics
- ARC Centre for the Digital Child
- ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS)
- ARC Centre for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET)
- ARC Centre for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
- ARC Centre for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (CIPPS)
- ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture
- ARC Centre for Synthetic Biology
- ARC Centre for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS)
