Welcome!

What is mentoring?

Mentoring, as we practise it at Loria, is inspired by the way things work at IRISA and the Inria RBA center. It involves a person being supported in a training role by a more experienced person, with the aim of encouraging their personal and professional development and fulfilment.

This scheme falls outside any hierarchical or paternalistic framework. It is above all a transmission of experience, limited in time, to meet an identified need. As such, the mentoring programme is not intended to take the place of the mentees’ managers, but rather to provide them with a complementary perspective. In particular, cases involving significant relational and/or personal issues, if identified, will be directed to the appropriate contacts at Loria.

Mentoring is open to all junior scientific staff at Loria. All permanent staff can be mentors; mentors will be invited to attend a half-day training course to clearly identify the role of mentor and its limits.

Feel free to contact any member of the committee individually.

For more information: presentation of the IRISA and the RBA center mentoring scheme.

How does mentoring work?

We are basing ourselves on the mentoring programme set up at IRISA and the Inria RBA centre, itself inspired by the work of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) at the University of California. The main features of this programme are as follows:

• mentoring is open to all junior scientific staff in the laboratory. For (teacher-)researchers, seniority corresponds to obtaining the HDR;
  
• mentoring is limited to one year (renewable if necessary);
  
• Mentoring candidates and volunteer mentors register by indicating their preferences on a form. There are several calls for participation each year;
  
• Mentors and mentees are matched by a committee that includes the mentoring managers;
  
• mentors attend a 3-hour training course to learn about the role of mentor and examples of situations (inter-personal conflicts, etc.) for which it is recommended that they seek help from appropriate outside sources.

Some documents and resources

• Mentoring at IRISA and Inria RBA center
• Framework and mission letter for mentoring at IRISA and the Inria RBA centre.
• Presentation and assessment of mentoring at IRISA and the RBA centre after 5 years.
• Mentoring, by Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) (2014).
• Mentoring in companies, by Patricia Ravera (2010).