Mentoring

The EAAE is committed to contribute to the career development and success of all its members, particularly early career agricultural economists. Therefore, the EAAE Board has established a mentoring program matching more established and senior members of the Association with early career members. By early career, we mean a researcher who has just finished a PhD program, a research associate or a post-doc or an assistant professor/lecturer or junior researcher in academia, public or private research institution.

The primary goal is to help younger members to acquire critical skills to help them achieve their career goals. A secondary goal is to cultivate a spirit of collaboration and cooperation between different generations of EAAE members. Each participant is matched based on individual goals, areas of research and profile. Examples of goals the mentees generally want to develop include, but are not limited to, areas such as crafting research papers, grant writing, leadership, networking, project management, teaching, work-life balance and/or job market preparation.

The EAAE is now launching its mentoring program for 2022/2023. Mentors and mentees are expected to meet monthly, virtually and potentially in-person, based on the time commitments both participants have agreed to put in. The mentee and the mentor are encouraged to identify a set of goals to guide the discussions throughout the year. The goals would correspond skills the mentee has identified and wants to improve upon. The goal can be ambitious but needs to be realistic. Besides one-on-one meetings, 4 workshops are organised for all program participants throughout the year (one in each quarter), focusing on key factors of success in our profession.

The program has officially been started at the 9th EAAE PhD workshop (Parma, Italy) on the 22nd of June 2022. The programme lasts for a year and a session will be organised at the upcoming EAAE Congress on 29 August - 1 September 2023 on the first experiences. The EAAE is committed to maintain its mentoring programme in the long run by continuously developing it, thereby investing in the future of our profession. The next call to participate in the programme is expected to be out in Springtime 2023 for 2023/2024.