Working with multidisciplinary or non-academic collaborators as mentors

Abstract

Mentoring relationships in academia are traditionally constructed as hierarchies, where a supervisor mentors a trainee, or an advisory committee guides a trainee. We propose that all collaborations are mutual mentorship opportunities, where all people involved learn from each other while working towards a common goal. Moreover, researchers and trainees can be mentored or learn from non-academic mentors in different disciplines or sectors. Herein we outline a tutorial on how to break down a research project into stages, and the logistics and value of engaging mentors or collaborators from different sectors and disciplines at each stage, and how multidisciplinary or non-academic collaborators can provide mentoring to support trainee learning and academic success.

Keywords

• collaboration
• mentorship
• implementation
• physical activity