UKAIS recognises the importance of supporting and nurturing the next generation of IS researchers to enable them to develop professionally and personally. The mentoring scheme aims to underpin our commitment.
For mentoring to be effective, the mentee needs to have clarity over what the mentee would like to achieve from the mentoring relationship. The responsibility for making things happen and putting plans into action primarily lies with the mentee.
There are many potential benefits for the mentee to gain from the research mentoring relationship including:
- The opportunity to learn from a role model
- A safe environment to test out ideas and suggestions
- Balancing efforts across various categories of research outputs (e.g. outputs vs bidding)
- Advice on esteem indicators, networking and collaboration
- Discussing research career development and training needs
- Support for developing research plans
- Act as a ‘critical friend’ who is prepared to listen and provide honest, constructive feedback
Mentors will support the mentee in trying out new ideas, challenge their assumptions from time to time, and make themselves available for meetings. The research mentoring relationship should provide a non-threatening and confidential environment in which the mentee feels able and willing to express their concerns and anxieties as well as discussing their ideas and aspirations.
While the focus of the mentoring relationship is primarily on the development needs and opportunities of the mentees there are also benefits for the mentor including:
- A sense of personal satisfaction in helping to develop the potential of others
- An opportunity to share experience and expertise.
We typically expect that each mentoring relationship will last a year. Although this is up to the mentor-mentee to agree. Over the mentoring period, the pair will have three discussions, in person if possible (such as at a conference) or via phone/video chat. The focus of the discussions can be determined individually by each pair, but they might cover the mentee’s research, research interests, related literatures, publishing strategies, career development or the academic job market.
Call for Mentors and Mentees
The UK Academy for Information Systems is launching a new annual mentorship program aimed at supporting the development of Early Career Researchers (ECR) engaged in research topics on IS. We are calling for experienced faculty members to mentor those who have been awarded their PhD and are in the immediate postdoctoral stage of their career or who are making the transition to independent researcher.
One experienced faculty member mentor will be paired with one ECR mentee for a one-year period beginning. As an informal mentorship arrangement, the time commitment is minimal, but the program will greatly assist ECR in shaping their careers, developing future research projects, and enabling them to network with established scholars in the field.
Over the one-year period, each pair will have a minimum of three discussions, in person if possible (such as at a conference) or via phone/video chat. The focus of the discussions can be determined individually by each pair, but they might cover the mentee’s research, research interests, related literatures, publishing strategies, career development or the academic job market.
To be eligible for mentoring, mentees need to be UKAIS members and be active within the Academy by attending UKAIS events including the annual conference.
If you would like to participate in our mentorship scheme as a mentee or a mentor, please email us (contactUKAIS@gmail.com) with your name, contact information, and keywords of research interests. There is no formal start date for the relationships. We accept request throughout the year, so please get in touch!