LBU Researcher Mentoring - The Value of a Different Perspective

The person who helps you think differently about your research career may be someone you would never otherwise cross paths with.

That has been one of the clearest messages from participants in the Leeds Beckett Researcher Mentoring Programme, with mentees particularly valuing the opportunity to talk openly with someone outside their own School and immediate working environment.

Research careers bring plenty of points where it helps to step back and think, whether that is deciding which opportunities to pursue, considering the next stage of a career or simply making sense of competing priorities. A conversation with someone who brings different experience and no involvement in the day-to-day can be particularly valuable.

Since launching in autumn 2024, the programme has supported more than 70 mentoring partnerships across the University. Mentees are matched with a mentor from outside their own School, giving them access to perspectives and experience beyond their immediate working environment while also helping to build connections across the wider University research community.

As one mentee reflected:

“The benefits of speaking to someone completely impartial; it was much more valuable than speaking to my family or someone in my own subject group.”

Many described feeling more confident about their next steps, clearer about their future direction and better informed about opportunities across the University.

Participants used mentoring conversations to prepare funding applications, explore promotion opportunities, develop longer-term research plans and take forward new collaborations.

For many, the value of those conversations continued after the formal mentoring partnership had ended. In feedback gathered three months after the partnership ended, 24 of the 25 respondents said that the knowledge, skills and confidence gained through mentoring remained relevant to their work. All 25 said they would recommend the programme to another researcher.

Mentors also found that they gained something from the experience. Many spoke about developing their own listening and leadership skills, gaining insight into experiences elsewhere in the University and enjoying the opportunity to support a colleague's development.

One mentor captured this particularly well:

“It's nice knowing you are helping others and giving back the way others gave their time, knowledge and insights to help you.”

What comes through clearly from the feedback is how valuable that different perspective can be. Some of the most useful conversations are with people we might never otherwise meet, and the Researcher Mentoring Programme creates an opportunity for those conversations to happen.

As the new academic year begins, applications are now open for both mentors and mentees. Researchers interested in receiving mentoring can find out more and apply through the Request a Mentor page, while colleagues interested in becoming a mentor can visit the Become a Mentor page.