How do you make small talk with an esteemed professor while fetching coffee? How do you get involved in exciting research projects? And how do you balance family life with a career in a highly competitive research community?

These are some of the questions that can crop up for younger members of academic staff at AU. But there is no reason to wrestle with these questions alone.

With the mentor programme Empower Talent! postdocs and assistant professors can get a whole year of sparring and advice from a more experienced researcher at associate professor level or above.

Mentor and mentee are matched across departments, which is one of the programmes great advantages according to Anne Louise Frydendah Hellwing, who was one of the participants in the first round of Empower Talent! which ended in January 2015. She is a former postdoc and current academic employee at Foulum research centre.

"Some of the issues that you face on a daily basis can be difficult to discuss with your colleagues or manager. So it’s good to have someone who you don’t see everyday, as you can discuss topics such as employment conditions, networking and research applications more freely," she says.

AU HR has just evaluated the first round of the mentor programme, which comprised nine mentees and seven mentors. The results show that all of the mentees have given a positive or very positive assessment of the mentor programme, while all of the participants – both mentees and mentors – would recommend the programme to colleagues.

Project Manager Lizzi Edlich therefore hopes that even more people will show interest in taking part in the next round of Empower Talent! which starts in May.

• Want to get involved?

  • Then register for the next round of Empower Talent! before 17 April.
  • The kick-off meeting will be held on 28 May
  • Find out more about the mentor programme