Mentoring

In the Sustainability Transformation doctoral education pilot (SusTra), every doctoral researcher has a mentor or supervisor with strong working life experience outside academia. The aim of the doctoral pilot is, among other things, to increase the mobility of doctoral students between different organisations, to encourage diverse research careers and to increase the employment of doctors widely in different sectors of society.

Each mentor is sought individually for each researcher. The emphasis in mentoring may be more on the content of the dissertation, personal career plans or both, depending on the wishes of the doctoral researcher. Wishes are discussed before match-making in order to create a mutually rewarding relationship. It is also possible to have more than one mentor.

Prerequisites for becoming a SusTra mentor

• Motivation for the task; comprehensive support for doctoral researcher’s work and sharing one’s own expertise
• Supporting doctoral researcher’s career planning and personal goals
• Content support on the topic of the dissertation
• The mentor does not have to be a PhD, but it is desirable
• Commitment for the duration of the doctoral pilot (2025-2027)
• The number of meetings is at least 2 times a year, they can be face-to-face or remote, the recommendation is to meet at least once face-to-face
• The mentor can participate in SusTra doctoral pilot symposia and seminars, but this is not required

Sustainability challenges embrace global perspectives, so the country of origin of the mentor organisation or the nationality of the person is not limited to Finland. International operators are welcome to join SusTra and communication is in English.

The general objective of the pilot is the security of supply of expertise and, in SusTra, the implementation of the sustainability transition and fruitful interaction between research and working life in a more targeted manner.