At Elemental, we believe that world-leading research and innovation are grounded in strong, supportive relationships. Our Mentoring Scheme is designed to connect Early Career Researchers (ECRs) with experienced academics and industry professionals, enhancing a culture of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and mutual growth.
Why Mentoring?
The transition from postgraduate research into academic or industry careers can be complex. Our mentoring programme offers ECRs the opportunity to gain insight, guidance and support from those who’ve navigated similar paths, be it in university settings, commercial environments, or research leadership roles.
Mentors provide a sounding board for ideas, career planning, and professional development, while mentees bring fresh thinking and emerging expertise. The result: two-way learning that benefits the individual and the wider research ecosystem.
Purpose
The scheme enables structured, informal mentoring relationships that provide practical guidance, research advice, and sector insight, complementing the wider Elemental Career Development Programme. It is intended to supplement, not supplant, any mentoring schemes at the host institutions of our ECRs.
Objectives
- Provide ECRs with career guidance, professional support, and research advice.
- Encourage cross-sector learning between academia and industry.
- Build community and enable long-term collaboration within the Elemental Hub.
- Complement and strengthen Elemental’s broader career development offer.
Who can take part
Open to all Elemental-partner ECRs, including postdoctoral research associates, PhD students, and other early-career staff.
To ensure manageable workloads, each mentor will support one mentee at a time.
How matching works
- Register your interest: ECRs complete a short online form (career goals, areas of interest, preferred mentor background).
- Manual matching: The Elemental admin team will match mentees by hand to ensure good alignment and balance across the mentor pool.
- Introductions: Mentor and mentee are introduced by email with a PDF copy of the Elemental Mentoring Guidance.
- Meet independently: Pairs arrange their own meetings (virtual or in-person). We don’t schedule or coordinate, but we ask to be notified after the first meeting to help us track engagement across the programme.
The Guidance includes suggestions on meeting duration and frequency; pairs can adapt these to suit their needs.
Join the programme
- ECRs (mentees): Register your interest via the mentee form https://forms.office.com/e/v86fSqFnAN
- Researchers & industry professionals (mentors): Join the mentor pool via the mentor form https://forms.office.com/e/ZZS6RZN3BN
Questions? Contact the Elemental admin team at elementalmetalhub@kent.ac.uk