The first Exciton Science full scale mentoring program was initiated in 2020. As the nationwide COVID-19 shutdowns carried on, it became apparent that the inability for people to meet in person and form new relationships was not only having an impact on the research work of our Centre members but also on people’s cohesion within the Centre.

It was decided that one step to establish some new relationships would be to implement a Centre wide mentoring program, all Centre members were invited to express their preferences for what they could see as benefits of such a program. To ensure we had enough senior Centre members to mentor our more junior members, our Associate and Partner Investigators were also invited to take part, and the Centre was pleased to see the interest across the board.

The Centre has been reported to be more successful than hoped, and the Centre will role out a new program of matching again in 2021.

[There is a] big network to draw on [I] found mentoring program very beneficial