Mentoring Program Academia

Ein Mentor unterhält sich mit einer Mentee

With the Mentoring Program Academia we want to support postdocs with their personal and professional development and academic career planning. We offer opportunities for reflection, feedback, networking and further qualification to master the next step of a scientific career successfully.

What does mentoring mean?

Mentoring means the targeted support of a person (mentee) by a experienced specialist or manager (mentor). In the university context, mentoring is not understood as a substitute for scientific supervision, but rather as a supplement.

The personal exchange takes place in a protected setting, without hierarchy and dependent relationships. Other requirements for the mentoring relationship are a voluntary basis, open-mindedness, confidentiality, respect, agreed degree of availability and commitment.

What does the program include?

The core of the mentoring program Academia is the One-to-One-mentoring relationship between mentee and mentor (also referred to as a tandem). Mentors give their mentees insights into structures, processes and rules of the science system and provide access to important networks. Mentees get personal support with their further career plans and receive constructive feedback. Mentors can promote their advisory expertise and leadership competence and gain important insights into the situation of young scientists.

During the twelve-month program cycle, there are three official meetings (kick-off event, mid-term review and closing event), which give program participants the opportunity to get to know each other as a group and to exchange ideas.

Furthermore, mentees can attend the Graduate Academy's qualification program or the Charlotte Bühler Programme to improve their competencies in different topics like communication, publication, leadership, resilience, application training or time, project and conflict management.

In addition, mentees benefit from a wide-ranging advisory service that supports them with topics such as orientation, decision making and competence development. These also include collegial consulting in peer groups and the opportunity for using the Postdoc Center’s coaching and advisory offers.

How does the matching work?

The mentees propose up to three potential mentors. In case of an admission to the program, the mentees or the coordinator of the Postdoc Center make the first contact with the mentors. If the mentors agree to participate, mentee and mentor enter into a mentoring agreement and the cooperation can start.

If required, mentees can receive a subsidy for travel expenses of up to 500 EURO for personal meetings with their mentors.

Mentees and mentors agree on the topics of their meetings and arrange the organisation of their mentoring relationship by themselves (e.g. number of meetings, thematic objectives). The team of the Postdoc Center will gladly support you if questions arise.

Application

Our twelve-month program is addressed to postdocs of the TU Dresden who are planning to pursue an academic career. There are 12 places available. Admission to this program is based on a two stage selection process, based on your submitted application documents and a personal interview.

Please note that a GA membership is a prerequisite for participation.

The next cycle is expected to run from 15^th October 2026 to 14^th October 2027. All information on the application process will be published in summer 2026.