Apply for mentorship

Our enriching ESCMID mentorship programme provides participants with the opportunity to network with and learn from experts in the fields of Clinical Microbiology (CM) and Infectious Diseases (ID). Our esteemed mentors are eager to share their knowledge, experience, and skills!

Objectives

Together with your mentor, you will define the goals and outcomes of your mentorship exchange and develop a plan that outlines your criteria for success. Mentorships aim at providing you with valuable experience and concrete outcomes such as career planning, scientific development, presentation skills and academic publishing, data analysis, application for grants/fellowships, as well as opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Deadlines

Applications for mentorships can be submitted throughout the year. Requests have to be submitted at least 3 months prior to the intended mentorship start date.

Application procedure

As an eligible ESCMID member, your first step is to choose and reach out to an available mentor from our database. Once you and your mentor have reached an agreement, and you have received an official endorsement letter, we will be happy to review your application. Please only submit one mentorship request at a time. Apply to your ESCMID mentorship by following these steps: 

1. Select a mentor and reach an agreement: 

  • Select and decide on an EMC. 
  • Get in contact with a mentor from the EMC through our contact form at the bottom of each EMC description. 
  • Agree on a mentor partnership and develop a mentoring plan together. 
  • Request a positive written agreement from your mentor for the application. 

2. Send an official application: 

  • Use your Full, LMIC, or YSM ESCMID member login details to connect. 
  • Click the ‘Apply now for mentorship’ link, then complete and submit your request through the online application form with your mentor agreement and mentoring plan attachments. 

3. Receive a final approval: 

  • The ESCMID Professional Affairs Officer will evaluate your application and make a decision. 
  • Our Executive Office will notify you of the evaluation results.

Please be aware you can only apply for one mentorship. Mentorship exchanges are handled via email, phone, video conference tools or face-to-face sessions at the ESCMID Mentorship Centre (EMC). To qualify for the ESCMID mentorship programme, please make sure you meet our eligibility criteria:

  • ESCMID Full members, Young Scientist Members (YSM), or members from low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) 
  • Inside-of-country and/or outside-of-country mentorship
  • No age restrictions

ESCMID is pleased to provide mentorship funding of up to 1,000 EUR annually, available for a period of two years. Submit your final report and original receipts to qualify for a reimbursement reaching 2,000 EUR per mentorship. ESCMID will reimburse the following expenses within the 1,000 EUR yearly budget: 

  • Remote interactions between mentor and mentee: telephone bills, telephone conference invoice, and internet bills 
  • One face-to-face meeting per year: travel and accommodation during the visit to an ESCMID Mentorship Centre (EMC)
  • Attendance of ESCMID events and congresses (registration fees, transportation, and accommodation), as well as article publication fees for CMI and CMI Communications. 

If additional expenses are expected to result from the mentorship programme, they need to be specified in the application and will be reviewed accordingly. Please note that after your application is approved we will only cover the expenses mentioned above, provided you submit the original receipts.

After completing your mentorship, you will need to document the outcomes for your final report, highlighting the valuable experience gained from this unique opportunity. Reports are an important step to ensuring a mentorship is on the right track. They are requested halfway through the exchange period, and at the end to share results. More details on how and when to submit your report are available here: 

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We strongly encourage you to publish outcomes from your mentorships in peer-reviewed journals. Publications from research projects that have directly benefited from mentorships are specially acknowledged with the following: “[Name of mentee] has received input for the study/project through ESCMID's mentorship programme by [name of mentor].” We invite you to send the published scientific articles resulting from your mentee-funded projects to the ESCMID office. Even if the project has officially been closed, or the mentorship already complete, your accomplishment will still be shared through ESCMID channels.

Discover our EMC profiles

Find your ideal mentor here! 

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