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Research Mentoring

• Introduction
• Background
• Identification of Research Active Staff
• The Role of a Mentor
• Identification of Mentors
• Allocation of Mentors
• Associated Forms of Support

Background to Mentoring System

The merger documentation sets out a very clear strategy for action aimed at fostering future research activity in the School. The implementation and success of such a strategy needs not only to take account of the culture shift that such a strategy implies for ex-Northern College staff and to provide appropriate support mechanisms to enable them to embrace this change, but also to enable new members of staff joining the School to enhance their research capabilities. In this context the development of a mentoring system is regarded as a key feature of this strategy whereby:

"...all research active staff in the new School will have an experienced research mentor, who will meet regularly with each staff member to devise a personal research plan and to monitor progress in the achievement of targets".

(Merger Document, 2000)

However, the School Research Committee acknowledges that the term 'research active staff' encompasses a wide diversity of experience of research and writing for publication. Therefore, the mentoring and support needs within this group of staff are varied. The policy takes account of this, as well as ways in which staff who would like to become research active could be supported in developing a research and publications profile. It also draws a distinction between research mentoring and research management.