Objectives
The Swiss-German Mentoring Programme
The Swiss-German Mentoring Programme is a programme for the promotion of women in academic careers. It offers mentoring and accompanying measures (framework programme) for women scientists and researchers who are working towards habilitation or are engaged in post-doctoral and advanced doctoral studies at German speaking Swiss universities.
The programme provides the advanced early career scientists (mentees) with an opportunity for a mentoring exchange involving a senior scientist (professor), and with networking facilities beyond the boundaries of their own universities. Mentoring and accompanying measures have been established to encourage mentees to plan their careers, to strengthen their self-esteem as scientists, and to integrate them more firmly in the science community through the establishment of adequate formal and informal networks.
The Swiss-German Mentoring Programme is a personalised springboard for advanced early career women scientists. Its ultimate objective is to increase the number of female professors at Swiss universities. It has enjoyed the support of the Swiss Federal Programme of Equal Opportunities (Bundesprogramm Chancengleichheit, since 2001) and of the Swiss National Science Foundation (since 2006).
This programme is being conducted jointly by gender equality departments at the universities of Berne, Basel, Fribourg, Lucerne, St. Gall, Zurich and the Università della Svizzera italiana. Project directorate and coordination are located at the University of Lucerne. In French-speaking Switzerland, a parallel programme has been established for the same target group - the Réseau romand de mentoring pour femmes.
The Swiss-German Mentoring Programme is a founding member of eument-net, the European Network of Mentoring Programmes, which has been established within the 6th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.