Academic Pairs "Mentors and Mentees"
EAWOP is launching a new initiative: EAWOP Academic Pairs. This program was developed to provide members with more opportunities to connect informally, exchange experiences, and support one another’s professional development. While EAWOP facilitates the initial matching, the pairs are responsible for organizing their own interactions.
Whether you are at the beginning of your career, navigating a transition, or looking to support the next generation, EAWOP Academic Pairs offer a meaningful way to connect and contribute. We strongly encourage members to apply as both mentors and mentees to help strengthen our community.
EAWOP Academic Pairs
Strong scientific communities thrive not only through conferences and publications, but through personal connections, shared experience, and mutual support across career stages. EAWOP-members have expressed a desire for more opportunities to connect informally, exchange experiences, and support one another’s professional development. To respond to this, EAWOP is launching a new initiative: EAWOP Academic Pairs
Academic careers are complex, international, and often shaped by informal knowledge that is hard to access, especially across countries and career stages.
Academic Pairs are designed to make this knowledge visible, shareable, and supportive, while strengthening personal connections within the EAWOP-community.
This initiative offers a light-touch mentoring exchange that:
- Supports career development at different stages,
- Foster cross-country and cross-institutional connections, and
- Strengthens EAWOP as a community, not just a professional association.
Pairs are self-directed and shape their interaction according to their needs and interests.
- A one-to-one mentor-mentee pairing
- Focused on career development (e.g., publishing strategies, funding, academic roles, leadership, mobility, work-life balance)
- Flexible and informal:
- Recomendable 2-3 online meetings per year (e.g., Zoom)
- Optional in-person meeting if feasible
- nformal social gathering at the EAWOP Congress
We warmly invite applications from:
- Mentors - senior academics (e.g., associate or full professors, senior researchers, or those with substantial experience in publishing, funding, leadership, or academic service) willing to share experience and insight
- Mentees - early- and mid-career scholars (e.g., PhD candidates, postdocs, or academics within approximately five years of completing the PhD or starting an academic position) seeking guidance and exchange Cross-country and cross-institutional pairings are encouraged.
WHY apply as a MENTEE?
- Gain perspective on academic career pathways across Europe
- Discuss challenges and decisions in a confidential, supportive setting
- Learn from experience beyond your own institutional context
- Build a meaningful professional connection within EAWOP
WHY apply as a MENTOR?
Mentoring in this initiative is low-commitment but high-impact.
- Share experience that can make a real difference to another scholar
- Give back to the EAWOP-community in a highly manageable way
- Gain insight into challenges faced by earlier-career colleagues
- Build cross-generational and cross-national connections
Interested members are invited to submit a short application including:
- Role: mentor or mentee
- Basic information: name, institution, country, career stage
- Career topics of interest (e.g., publishing, grants, leadership, mobility)
- Brief motivation (max. 150 words)
- Mentees: what support are you looking for?
- Mentors: what experience would you like to share?
EAWOP facilitates the matching.
Pairs organize themselves.
Whether you are at the beginning of your career, navigating a transition, or looking to support the next generation, EAWOP Academic Pairs offer a meaningful way to connect, learn, and contribute. We strongly encourage members to apply, both as mentors and as mentees, and to help strengthen the EAWOP community from within.
The guidelines for the mentors and mentees can be found:
