Mentoring Program

Mentoring Program (2025/2026)

Previous program & Identified Issues
The 2024/2025 restarted mentoring program included 9 mentees and 9 mentors, for a total of 18 participants. The main challenges reported were that some pairs felt uncertain about what topics to address and found their meetings somewhat aimless. In contrast, the successful pairs valued the freedom to discuss any topics they deemed relevant, which enabled meaningful exchanges of experience and concerns related to work–life balance, research, student engagement, and other professional issues.

Revision of the program for 2025-2026
The Members Development Committee (MDC) will work on further polishing this year’s mentoring program to make their relationship/communication/collaboration more efficient and focused.

Dates
Each year, the program will be launched after the AGM (starting with the applications) and will end a month before the next AGM. The initial revised program for 2025-2026, will start in December 2025 with the call for applications (for mentors and mentees). The matching will be done by the end of December and the program will initiate in January 2026, and have duration of approx. 6 months, until July 2026 (before the AGM in Blacksburg).

Definitions
Before discussing the structure of the program, it is essential to provide some definitions.

Mentor: Any active SOMP member (except for junior, and new members) can volunteer to become a mentor in this program. It is expected that the mentor will support the mentee with experience, knowledge, advice, and encouragement in several areas that the mentee requires help. These could include (among others) advice in conducting research, writing papers, teaching, and networking at a national and international level. The mentor can also provide information about the SOMP (structure, history, committees, etc).

Mentee: Any junior or new member (or anyone in the society that feels they need guidance, advice, mentoring) can apply to become a mentee in this program. It is expected that the mentee in their initial application will provide topics of interest or struggling issues where they need support from an experienced academic/ SOMP member.

Contact person: Each pair of mentor-mentee will be assigned a contact person that is an MDC member. The contact person will support two parties with issues like lack of communication, lack of interest, insufficient meetings, conflicts, etc. The contact person will have a discrete role ensuring the respectful cooperation of the mentor with the mentee and only intervene to pacify and/or to remind of the requirements for the two parties.

Contract: Both the mentor and the mentee shall sign a contract to increase their commitment to the mentorship. This contract will include guidelines, and a proposed structure of the mentoring program that the two parties can follow to make the mentorship easier and more efficient.

Logbook: The minutes of all meetings between the mentor and the mentee should be inserted and kept in a logbook, which is a responsibility of the mentee to keep. At the end of the program, the mentor shall approve the logbook. A template will be provided to mentees by the MDC. It is not mandatory to submit the logbook to MDC at the end of the program; however, it would be very helpful for the committee.

Program Structure
The program implementation includes the following steps:

  1. The program will initiate on December 23rd, 2025, with the call for applications from mentors and mentees. The deadline for the applications is January 19th, 2026. Applications must be sent to george.barakos@curtin.edu.au and natalija.pavlovic@rgf.rs. 
  2. Experienced SOMP members will be asked to volunteer as mentors. With their application for the mentoring program, potential mentors can provide any information or key words related to their current and/or fundamental research, career experience, role at SOMP and anything that they are good at (e.g., time management, teaching, supervising etc.). Templates will be provided by MDC.
  3. Junior, young, new, and inexperienced members of SOMP will be encouraged to apply as mentees. In their applications, mentees will be asked to state their topics of interest (research, teaching, networking etc.), as well as issues they struggle with in their early careers. The potential mentees should include in their applications brief statements and use key words. Templates will be provided by MDC.
  4. Once the applications are collected, the Members Development Committee will proceed with the matching of the pairs. Each pair will consist of one mentor and one mentee.
  5. A member of the MDC will be assigned to each pair as the contact person during the mentorship. Then, the role of the contact person will be discrete and will intervene only when necessary (for instance to remind the pair to have meetings if none or very few have taken place).
  6. The mentor and the mentee will progress in their mentoring program, have regular meetings (online is the most convenient way) and discuss all issues that will help the mentee improve their knowledge and experience. The mentor and mentee will have the discretion to set the number and frequency of meetings they will have during the program. It is recommended that at least three meetings are arranged. 
  7. A face-to-face informal meeting will also be held right before or during the AGM for those mentors and mentees that will participate. 
  8. A survey will be shared with all participants after the end of the mentorships to capture their feedback, testimonies, appreciation of the program.
  9. Also at the end, letters or appreciation will be given to all mentors, and certifications will be given to all mentees. There can also be an acknowledgement and rewarding of the best mentor-mentee pair (based on a Rubric that shall be generated internally and followed by the MDC members).

Application Forms