Call for mentors: Heyrovský Institute opens a pilot mentoring programme for 2026/2027

You may remember how valuable it was at the beginning of your career to encounter someone more experienced — someone who gave you time, shared experience, perhaps inspired you or helped you navigate a new environment, offered guidance, or gave you confidence at a moment when you needed it.

This kind of support we aim to provide to early-career researchers through the pilot year of the Heyrovsky Institute Mentoring Programme 2026/2027.

At the Heyrovsky Institute, we understand mentoring as targeted, long-term support that helps researchers at the beginning of their scientific careers develop their potential, build professional confidence, and navigate both academic and commercial environments. The programme aims to support mentees in developing key skills, professional competencies, and scientific independence.

Who we are looking for

We invite mentors who are willing to share their experience, provide support, inspire others, and help mentees explore their future professional direction.

Mentors may be:

early-career researchers who have completed their doctoral degree;
experienced researchers with several years of professional practice;
experts from academic and non-academic environments;
representatives of companies, public institutions, non-profit organisations, or other applied sectors.

Mentors from non-academic backgrounds are not required to hold a PhD.

What we expect from mentors

We expect participating mentors to be willing to support mentees, share their experience, provide feedback, help them navigate professional environments, and contribute to their further development.

Mentoring is neither coaching nor a one-off consultation. It is a deeper, more focused relationship between mentor and mentee, based from the outset on a specific request, need, or goal defined by the mentee.

Participation in the programme requires:

capacity for at least five meetings with the mentee over a period of ten months;
the possibility to meet either in person or online, with in-person meetings preferred;
willingness to engage in a structured mentoring process;
acknowledgement that participation in the programme is voluntary and unpaid.

How the mentoring programme works

The programme aims to establish a high-quality, meaningful mentoring system with clearly defined rules, a timeframe, objectives, and expected outcomes. We want mentoring to be a well-structured process rather than an ad hoc activity, providing mentees with long-term support.

The programme will be implemented in several stages: