The NIHR Leaders Support and Development Programme seeks to maintain and improve the quality of leadership in health and social care research. We aim to do this by meeting the development needs of current leaders and early to mid-career researchers within the NIHR, whose focus is aligned with the strategic priorities of the NIHR.
Our programme embodies in its design, structure, and approach the NIHR’s commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are continually developing our provision to meet the evolving needs of our leadership communities. Provision currently includes:
The NIHR Academy provides postdoctoral members with career development support through its mentoring programme.
The refreshed NIHR Academy programme supports postdoctoral Academy Members from a broad range of professional and disciplinary contexts across our diverse health and social care communities to mentor others and to seek a mentor. It builds on the NIHR Academy mentoring programme that was previously delivered with the Academy of Medical Sciences.
The new programme will not impact on the programme delivered by our partnership with Health Education England, supporting researchers who are in receipt of an Integrated Clinical Academic award.
The programme has been developed and guided by a Steering Group whose membership is representative of Academy Members.
The programme aims to support the academic and career development of our postdoctoral communities by:
Mentors and mentees will be supported throughout their participation in the programme through regular professional development events and resources. They will also have access to a mentoring platform to support and guide their mentoring relationships.
Potential mentors and mentees will be able to express their interest in joining the programme at any time, however matching of mentors and mentees will take place three times during 2021.
To join the programme as a mentee, you should be an NIHR Academy Member and hold an NIHR award at postdoctoral level and/or hold a postdoctoral position and be based in NIHR Infrastructure (e.g. BRC) or in an NIHR School.
To join the programme as a mentor, you will be an NIHR research leader, or established as a leader in an NIHR research priority area or NIHR stakeholder group. You may be an NIHR Academy Member or Associate Member, for example a NIHR research professor or senior investigator, or a NIHR postdoctoral researcher with significant postdoctoral experience (typically, at least 5 years). You may be contributing to NIHR's work at a senior leadership level, for example, as an awarding panel member, or a senior leader in the NIHR including its Centres, Infrastructure and Schools. As we expand and diversify our research, we are also keen to welcome mentors from disciplines, professions and demographics that are currently under-represented in the NIHR.
Once enrolled in the mentoring programme, mentees will be matched with a mentor from our mentor pool.
| 2021 Cohorts | Cohort applications close | Orientation event | Mentoring begins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort 1 | 12 April 2021 | End April | May |
| Cohort 2 | 28 May 2021 | Mid June | July |
| Cohort 3 | 16 July 2021 | Mid September | October |
The NIHR Academy Mentoring Programme is a valuable development opportunity for postdoctoral researchers looking for a mentor. Mentees benefit from one-to-one support for their career development and time for personal growth and reflection.
Mentorship can be rewarding for mentors too, who are contributing to the development of our future research leaders. Both parties can gain new perspectives and fresh ideas, and expand their professional networks.
To help you learn about the value of mentoring and find mentorship support, you can read the following articles:
For further information about the NIHR Mentoring Programme, please contact the NIHR Development and Support team developmentandsupport@nihr.ac.uk
We provide a range of online, modular resources to support our Members’ leadership and management development. The modules are designed so that they can be worked through together as a series, as stand-alone modules, or as flexible resources to dip into as and when you need them.
Each module contains practical activities for you to complete to support the development of your leadership and management practice, as well as guiding you to additional resources online to support your learning. Where relevant, module content uses examples from health and social care in recognition of the contexts in which our leaders work.
Current titles in the series are:
More modules are under development and will be added as they become available.
You can access the modules through the NIHR’s online learning management system, NIHR Learn. Not registered with NIHR Learn? Go to: Getting started with NIHR Learn
We regularly host webinars designed to support your leadership and management development. All of our modular resources have webinars associated with them, such as ‘Compassionate and inclusive leadership’ along with additional webinars covering a wide variety of topics such as ‘Coaching for success’ and ‘Optimising your energy for peak performance’.
To learn about forthcoming webinars, you will find them promoted on the Events page of the NIHR website. You can access the previous webinars on our Development and Support playlist on the NIHR YouTube channel.
Our leadership workshops have been designed to support the development of your leadership skills. Each workshop will offer you the chance to share, learn, and try practical tools and techniques to help you to become the leader you would like to be.
Details of forthcoming workshops are detailed on the Events page of the NIHR website.
Each year we host a conference for Academy Members. In 2020 the conference theme was “Research for Everyone” and included a series of workshops that included topics such as resources and toolkits for increasing participation from diverse communities in research, how to increase the visibility, accuracy and accessibility of health and care information on Wikipedia and guidance on undertaking research with underserved communities. You can access the replay of the keynote, panel and workshops delivered at the conference website.
For more information about any of the leaders development resources please contact the NIHR Development and Support team developmentandsupport@nihr.ac.uk
The new Future-Focused Leadership Programme enables you to develop your capabilities and effectiveness as a leader by identifying and reflecting on your strengths and areas for development.
The programme is arranged into two streams, targeting distinct groups of Leaders:
The Future-Focused Leadership programme has been developed specifically for the NIHR following an in-depth analysis to understand what makes a successful leader and offers you the opportunity to explore new thinking on how to lead in the 21st century. The programme has been created with reference to years of research in the fields of occupational psychology and applied positive psychology.
The programme is designed around exploring Leading Yourself, Leading Others and Leading Beyond Authority.
The Future-Focused Leadership Programme extends over a period of twelve months and consists of three residential workshops, webinars and online modules. You will be able to apply the insights you uncover and the new skills you learn to your current role throughout the year and will be encouraged to network and share your experience and learning with fellow delegates.
Places on our current programmes have been allocated. Future programme dates will be announced on this page.
FAQs for the Academy Mentoring Programme
An article exploring the differences between coaching and mentoring
Exploring the characteristics and key competencies of an effective mentee
Exploring what should be taken into consideration when choosing a mentor or mentee
An introduction to mentoring, exploring what mentoring is and how it can aid career and professional development
