Future of Research is bringing mentoring back to the heart of academia.

 

Mentoring the next generation of scientists is critical to the future of research. Unfortunately, academia has lost its focus on the development and wellbeing of young scientists. This has led to problems including:

As an organization built by and for young scientists, we can see the profound effects this culture has on our up and coming scientific talent first hand. Poor mentoring and egregious behavior can be a selection factor in who stays in research regardless of ability, and can particularly affect those from populations underrepresented in academia. Future of Research is committed to making a better and more successful academic environment for everybody.

We are developing a framework for mentoring evaluation, to introduce accountability and to act as an incentive for institutions to pay more attention to the environments they are providing for their academics.

We have a proposal to kickstart discussion on how to succeed in this mission. Key roadblocks to inspiring and ethical mentoring which we seek to overcome with this project are:

  • Awareness of mentoring best practices;
  • Incentives for positive mentoring; and
  • Accountability for egregious behavior.

We are building a consortium of partner organizations and are also looking for “early adopter” institutional partners to pilot a possible evaluation mechanism. Our goal is for these initial steps to culminate in a Mentoring Summit at University of Chicago in June 2019.

 

How can you help us this #GivingTuesday, and beyond?

 

On #GivingTuesday, we are launching an effort to raise $100,000 by the end of 2018.

 

If we raise $25,000: we can commit to holding our mentoring summit to bring together those who seek to effect change.

If we raise $50,000: we can commit to follow-up work after the meeting including producing a report, online resources and next actions for all stakeholders, through to the end of 2019.

If we raise $100,000: we can commit to utilizing the meeting results to implement a pilot project in “early adopter” institutions.

 

We will promote a GoFundMe campaign on Tuesday to support this project – and we’re asking for donations:

 

Donate!

 

But we also would greatly appreciate the help of our community to spread the word far and wide beyond this day! As well as the GoFundMe, there are ways you can help us, and even do simple things like retweeting to make money for the campaign:

 

Spread the word

To spread the word about this campaign and why you’ve donated, and think others should donate, please use #FoRmentors on social media!

 

Benevity campaignYou can literally earn us $10 with a retweet!

On #GivingTuesday, just quote tweet the pinned tweet that will appear on @Benevity and mention @FORsymp #BeTheGood. That’s it! They’ll give us $10 for everyone who does this!

Donations will be tax deductible as allowed by law. Future of Research EIN: 81-2236934.

If you have any questions about this process, please contact us at info@futureofresearch.org