The Spanish Foundation for Science an Technology (FECYT) is organizing today the kick-off meeting of the second edition of the REBECA interesectoral mentoring programme which has the objective of exploring professional alternatives for researchers beyond academia.
The call has received 234 applications from early stage researchers to become mentees and 120 expresions of interests from professionals working outside academic research environments to become mentors. In total, 80 pairs have been matched based on the experience of the mentors and the interests expressed by the mentees. Currently, 21,8% of the participants matched are working outside Spain.
By research areas, 47,4% of the mentees come from life sciences, 25,6% from physiscs and engineering and 15% from social sciences and humanities, while the background of the mentors represent 37,2%, 35,9% and 19,3% respectively.
During this first meeting, tips and recommendations for a good mentoring relationship will be offered to the participants, followed by the introduction to their respective pairs. Along the following 6 months -March to August 2021- each pair is expected to have 6 meetings to discuss skills, capacities and professional opportunittes for researchers beyond traditional academic research settings, in both the public and private sector.
FECYT, in its role of national coordinator of EURAXESS, together with the Network of Spanish Researchers Abroad (RAICEX) will be organizing additional activities to enrich the participation such as trainings for the mentees, networking events and keynote presentations