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Mentors are experienced scientists who are interested in supporting a group throughout the development of their research project between November 2025 and May 2026.

Why be a mentor?

Mentors will take on a supervisory role, guiding scholars through the research process and helping shape the scientific direction of the project. As official collaborators, they will be credited as co-authors on the final micropublication. The program concludes with the submission of a micropublication and a seminar presentation by each project team. If there is mutual interest in continuing the collaboration after the program, we will support further development toward a journal publication by ensuring uninterrupted access to computing resources.

Mentors’ Role and Responsibilities

Mentors are required to work 10 hours a month per group. They play a crucial role in guiding scholars through the program, ensuring steady progress toward the program’s three key outputs:

1. A micropublication
2. A summary for the general public
3. A seminar presentation

The program is flexible, meaning mentors and scholars manage their own workflow, but mentors are expected to provide structured support while empowering scholars to take ownership of their projects.

Compensation

Mentors supported directly through Neuromatch will be compensated $300 USD per month.

1. Time Commitment & Activities

Mentors must dedicate 10 hours per month to their scholar group. These hours can be distributed flexibly but must include the following:

Required Activities (Included in the 10 hours)

• Bi-monthly meetings with scholars (at least twice per month, more if needed).
• Task planning and coordination – Helping scholars define research milestones and track progress.
• Project support – Provide technical support for coding, data analysis, or modeling challenges. Offer guidance on structuring research plans and troubleshooting obstacles.
• Completion of monthly check-in surveys is required.
• Professional development support – Examples of professional development activities:
  • Provide career advice and insights, helping scholars navigate academia or industry.
  • Organize a research paper discussion relevant to the scholars’ project.
  • Lead a skill-building session based on scholars’ needs (e.g., research ethics, modeling).
• Reviewing Final Deliverables & Presentation Preparation:
  • Assist in finalizing the micropublication, ensuring clarity and scientific rigor.
  • Review other team’s micropublication.
  • Ensure the general public summary is clear, engaging, and accessible.
  • Help scholars practice and refine their seminar presentation, providing feedback on slides and speaking points.

Additional – not mandatory activities:

• Mentors’ Hub: Peer Networking & Support
  • Once a month, Neuromatch will organize Mentors’ Hub sessions, where all mentors are invited to:
    • Network and connect with other mentors.
    • Share experiences, challenges, and solutions.
    • Discuss best practices for mentoring and guiding scholars.
    • Gain insights from Neuromatch staff and volunteers on effective mentorship strategies.

📌 Important Notes

All accepted mentors will be required to attend a mandatory training session, which will be conducted over two days. Each session will last for 2 hours per day. To accommodate different time zones, we are offering two options:

• Group 1:
  • Part 1: TBD
  • Part 2: TBD
• Group 2:
  • Part 1: TBD
  • Part 2: TBD

2. Communication and Coordination

Mentors should check in regularly on Discord and emails to stay updated and communicate with Impact Scholars Team as needed.

Neuromatch will provide a Discord server for the program, including a private channel for each scholar group to support team discussions. While mentors and their teams are welcome to use their preferred communication platform (e.g., email, Slack, WhatsApp), please note that all official announcements and program-wide communications will be shared on Discord.

Mentors’ Program Timeline

19 September – 3 October 2025	Mentor recruitment
10 October – 17 October 2025	Mentors applications review
21 October 2025	Match between groups and mentors released
30 – 31 October 2025	Mentor Training Sessions
3 November 2025	Welcome event + Q&A session
November 2025 – May 2026	Mandatory monthly survey completion
20 – 21 November 2025	ISP Q&A session with mentors and scholars
December – TBD	Mentor Hub Session
January – TBD	Mentor Hub Session
February – TBD	Mentor Hub Session
February – TBD	Workshop – Micropublication + Q&A
March – TBD	Mentor Hub Session
April – TBD	Mentor Hub Session
27 April – 12 May 2026	Micropublication review
25 May 2026 – 31 May 2026	Seminar presentations

Mentors’ Eligibility Criteria

• Educational and Professional Background: Hold a PhD in a relevant field such as Neuroscience, Deep Learning, NeuroAI, or Climate Science, or possess equivalent experience gained through industry or other professional settings that demonstrate expertise in these areas.

• Project Fit: Proficient in programming, preferably Python, with experience conducting research related to the datasets or scientific questions of the scholars’ group. A project gallery will be shared here soon.

• Mentoring / Teaching Experience: Demonstrated experience in mentoring or supervising junior researchers.

• Communication Skills: Strong communication and interpersonal skills to effectively mentor and collaborate with scholars.

• Commitment: Availability for the program duration (November 2025 to May 2026) and commitment to regular meetings and communication with scholars and staff.

If you have any questions regarding the mentor role please feel free to contact impactscholars@neuromatch.io.

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Mentoring Guidelines

Mentoring is about helping each other expand and grow. It is a process in which an experienced person (mentor) guides, teaches, trains, supports, and encourages others (mentees) to achieve their personal goals and objectives in a limited time. Effective mentoring provides opportunities to share talents, skills, experiences, and knowledge gained through regular training, ongoing coaching, and feedback for both mentees and mentors.

Mentorship during the program

The Impact Scholars Program aspires to the mentorship standards set by Harvard University in which mentors and mentees both establish their goals and expectations and actively collaborate to maintain a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship.

Mentor matching (October)

Mentors are matched to project groups based on subject expertise, preference, and, where possible, timezone compatibility. Mentors and mentees receive a joint introductory email from the program organizers.

First interactions (November)

Mentorship can take place through synchronous meetings on a video conferencing platform and asynchronously via email or another, mutually agreed upon communication platform.

We suggest that the first mentor-mentee interactions:

• discuss background, experiences, and interests of everyone involved. This will give the mentees an opportunity to practice their networking skills and allow the mentor to tailor their mentoring approach to the mentees’ needs.
• set clear expectations. What do you wish to gain from the mentoring relationship? How often will you communicate? What communication channels will you use? When suggesting communication platforms, be mindful of potential accessibility restrictions elsewhere in the world.
• discuss the project proposal. The proposal outlining the mentees’ current results and the work proposed during the program is attached to the introductory email sent by the organizers. Bear in mind that scholars are working on their project part-time and are required to submit a micropublication by 27 April 2026.
• work together to set specific, achievable goals for the next month. These will help the mentees allocate responsibilities among themselves and will assist the mentor in their next interaction with the scholars.

Progress updates (October to March)

Subsequent mentoring interactions should be geared towards helping the scholars make progress on their project in line with the previously set expectations.

This should involve, but need not be limited to, guidance on analysis approaches, result interpretation and visualization, and the planning of next steps. We suggest that the previously defined monthly goals are revisited and that new goals are set for the next period after progress evaluation. It is important to give the mentees an opportunity to share their successes and struggles alike. As part of this process, mentors are welcome to share learning and development resources to help their mentees achieve their collective and individual professional goals.

Planning these interactions will keep the mentoring partnership on track and focused on significant objectives.

In addition, we encourage mentors and mentees to regularly assess the effectiveness of their collaboration and to respectfully work to improve it. If either of the involved parties do not feel content with the partnership and is struggling to resolve the problems internally, please do not hesitate to reach out to the program organizers via email impactscholars@neuromatch.io.

End of program support (May)

Mentor-mentee interactions should be organized with the program end date in mind, such that the mentorship focus gradually shifts from data analyses and interpretation to result presentation.

It is also important to understand that the end of the program and formal mentorship need not mean the end of the professional relationship between the mentor and the scholars. Your final interactions during the program are an excellent opportunity to share your overall experience with the program, celebrate achievements, and, if there is mutual interest, discuss ways for the partnership to continue beyond the program. For example, if the mentor and the scholars are keen to continue their collaboration and develop the project into a journal publication or a conference presentation, we will try our best to facilitate the process and extend scholar access to computing resources.

Micropublication review

After scholars submit the final draft of their micropublication (deadline: 27 April 2026), the program organizers will assign each mentor a micropublication from a different group to review. Mentors will have until 12 May 2026 to provide written feedback. Please note that mentors will not review the work of their own scholar group to ensure fairness and objectivity.

Scholars will then have time until the end of May to address the received feedback and submit a revised version of their micropublication.

Ethics of mentoring

Mentors and mentees should be aware of the Academies Code of Conduct. Mentors must continually examine and reflect on their ethical values ​​and how they can influence decisions in their mentoring practice. Mentors must take responsibility for the power they hold and never use it abusively over more vulnerable others. We are committed to having an open and transparent reporting structure for any abuse of power. Please report any anomaly at impactscholars@neuromatch.io and report any violations of the Code of Conduct through this reporting form.

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Mentoring best practices

We ask that mentors strive to follow the best mentorship practices and actively work to hone the following qualities (source: Manchester Metropolitan University).

1. Self-awareness: relates to having your own personal goals, career, and knowing your own strengths.
2. Organizational know-how: means individual knowledge that mentors have and that provides an advantage over others in the same field. It is about knowing how things work.
3. Credibility in determining objectives and developing capabilities: it is important that mentors have personal and professional credibility in their area.
4. Accessibility: The success of mentoring depends on the time dedicated to the mentees. Additionally, mentors should talk regularly to establish a comfort level in the relationship around easy topics, then, when a challenge or concern arises, it is much easier to have a helpful discussion.
5. Communication and active listening (taking into account interests, body language, attention, and giving advice) help determine the motivations and needs of your mentees.
6. Ability to empower: Mentors have the ability to create a work environment in which mentees feel safe to contribute in different ways.
7. A desire to help others train: Mentors must understand how mentees gain experience from mentoring.
8. Inventiveness: Mentors must be open-minded to do new and different things in mentoring to help mentees gain broader perspectives from their experiences.
9. Empathy: the ability to sense the learners’ emotions or what they might be thinking or feeling.
10. Understanding: Mentors can observe their mentees’ learning and provide constructive feedback.

The Actuaries Without Borders have done an excellent job summarizing specific dos and don’ts for mentors which we have adapted to our program:

DO	DON’T
1. Do ask your mentee to have an agenda of questions or discussion topics prepared for your next interaction.	1. Don’t allow your mentee to have unrealistic expectations without explaining why they are unrealistic.
2. Do maintain a friendly tone and be positive.	2. Don’t take over the conversation; give your mentee ownership of the conversation as well.
3. Do be aware that your mentee has a different cultural background.	3. Don’t provide commercial services or advice that normally require fees.
4. Do encourage development opportunities for your mentee as opposed to focusing on immediate problem solving.	4. Don’t use words others might find offensive and avoid personal attacks or name-calling.
5. Do bring the focus back to relevant topics when the conversation veers away.	5. Don’t attempt to resolve your mentee’s problems yourself instead of leading your mentee to find answers on their own.
6. Do share pertinent work practice experiences with your mentee.	6. Don’t attempt to solve or assist the mentee to solve personal or financial problems, especially those beyond actuarial nature.
7. Do give positive reinforcement when your mentee is doing something right.	7. Don’t allow the focus of the conversation to get away from you.
8. Do serve as a sounding board for ideas.	8. Don’t discuss confidential information and don’t share private information.
9. Do set goals with your mentee.

Mentees

Mentorship is a two-way relationship, so we ask all scholars to actively practice being a good mentee when interacting with their mentor. (source: The Actuaries Without Borders)

DO	DON’T
1. Do take responsibility for scheduling regular interactions with your mentor.	1. Don’t wait for your mentor to schedule your mentorship video conference.
2. Do acknowledge how busy your mentor is.	2. Don’t come unprepared to discuss your questions or topics.
3. Do be on time.	3. Don’t be too focused on immediate problem solving as opposed to development opportunities that will help you in the long run.
4. Do be prepared.	4. Don’t talk about inappropriate topics.
5. Do be honest.	5. Don’t use words others might find offensive and avoid personal attacks or name-calling.
6. Do be receptive to feedback.	6. Don’t be unreceptive to suggestions offered by your mentor.
7. Do be willing to tactfully and respectfully disagree with your mentor.	7. Don’t discuss confidential information and don’t share private information.
8. Do follow through on commitments and goals set during the mentoring sessions.	8. Don’t be negative.
9. Do admit mistakes and take responsibility for them.	9. Don’t play the victim.
10. Do be aware that your mentor has a different cultural background.
11. Do have a goal or goals in mind.
12. Do stay focused on your goals.
13. Do discuss whether your mentor’s suggestions were helpful and what positive effects they have had on your career.
14. Do thank your mentor.

Acknowledgement

Substantial portions of this document were adapted from:

• Open Science Lab Mentoring Guide
• Harvard Mentoring Guide
• Mentor Me Programme of the Manchester Metropolitan University

License

This document incorporates and adapts content from Open Science Lab Mentoring Guide, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). To the extent that this document includes content from the original source, it is also licensed under CC BY 4.0.