Pilot study in NOCS

The Southampton WISET (Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) Group carried out a 2-year pilot mentoring scheme with 4 women postdoctoral researchers at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). The mentoring scheme completed its pilot stage and this report highlights the issues that arose from the scheme that have wider implications.

We chose to focus on a group of women at a remote campus (NOCS) who were already established as postdoctoral researchers and who all aimed to achieve permanent employment within NOCS. The mentees had all previously expressed an interest in a mentoring scheme. Four experienced women Faculty members (Readers)- from a range of scientific disciplines volunteered to be mentors. Mentors and mentees were carefully matched according to relevant experience. The mentoring scheme’s first phase involved several meetings per pair, discussion of CVs, strategies for achieving goals, strategies for dealing with issues arising etc. and mentor-mentee pairs continue to meet as appropriate.

Establishing and maintaining an effective mentoring scheme was extremely time consuming and requires administrative support for effective implementation. Our pilot scheme highlighted the need for effective co-ordination of any future mentoring scheme.
All participants have found it rewarding to discuss issues in a confidential manner with women from outside NOCS, to share experiences and to create new solutions to problems. The WISET mentoring scheme provided support for the mentees at a crucial time in the postdoctoral researcher’s careers (returning from maternity leave, moving between contracts, applying for permanent positions etc).

WISET mentors were able to be effective in general areas relating to University career development but not in the specific areas relating to NOCS or the field of ocean and earth science. Ideally the WISET scheme would supplement and build on formal mentoring by PIs and/or group leaders/line mangers. Of particular concern is the fact that (with one exception) none of the mentees had any equivalent relationship with a senior member of staff in their scientific field. While there is obviously good practice in some research groups at NOCS, it is not implemented in all areas. There is a clear need for better management and mentoring of all postdoctoral researchers at NOCS over and above the University annual appraisal scheme.

We would recommend that NOCS management considers extending this pilot scheme as appropriate in the future.