Review: Anniversary Event - 10 years of kite-mentoring

On October 12-13, 2023 the “kite-mentoring” program at the University of Freiburg celebrated 10 years of empowering female early career researchers. The eument-net - European mentoring network - supported this celebration with a joint International conference in Freiburg for its members and all interested parties.

Since its foundation as an initiative of the Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools in 2013, this career support programme has been supporting young female scientists (doctoral students and postdocs) from all areas of the natural sciences: mathematics, physics, chemistry, pharmacy, environmental sciences, computer science and engineering, biology and medicine.

On the first Conference day, we had two keynote speakers, who discussed about gender equality and mentoring in academia:

	Prof. Dr. Tomas Brage (Lund University, Sweden) “Gender bias in academia - a threat to academic values”
	Prof. Dr. Marieke van den Brink (Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands) “Mentoring in higher education – supporting career development and organizational change”

Conference Venue

Program October 12, 2023

After the official opening, the coordinator of the kite-mentoring program (Dr. Evelyn Rusdea) briefly presented how this program empowers women in the STEM fields at the University of Freiburg since 10 years now.
During flash talks (20 minutes sessions) attendees had the opportunity to hear the different perspectives from mentors, current mentees and alumnae, including an alumna, who recently received a professorship.
After a short coffee break, the invited speakers Prof. Tomas Brage from Lund University, Sweden and Prof. Marieke van den Brink from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands presented their special topics regarding Gender bias in academia and Mentoring in higher education - supporting measure for career development.
The general discussion after the talks was moderated - as the whole event - by Colette Schrodi from ESF in Strasbourg. The program continued with a small career fair for mentees and alumnae, starting with a brief presentation of the invited partners from industry.
The first conference day ended with networking in the Lounge of IMBIT including finger food and refreshments.

Program October 13, 2023

The second conference day began with our eument-net Expert exchange involving Prof. Marieke van den Brink. We welcomed back Prof. van den Brink, who explored how inclusive gender equality approaches can be integrated into mentoring programs. Afterwards attendees in smaller groups shared their own experience from the perspectives of mentoring program coordinators, gender equality officers, career advisors, personnel developers, mentees and mentors.

Four key aspects had been in the focus of the exchange:
♦ recruitment of mentors
♦ mentors’ skills
♦ attitudes and awareness of institutions
♦ external influences and driving forces.

The Expert exchange concluded with a plenary discussion.

  International Conference - Expert exchange

In the afternoon, we invited all mentees and alumnae of “kite-mentoring” and all others who were interested to attend a strategic networking session about the vision: what next steps “kite-mentoring” should take in the next decade?

The official conference program ended with a workshop/discussion entitled “Be visible in Networking” with the experts Ashley Matthäus and Dr. Eleftheria Egel from the German-American Business Community (GABC) Freiburg.

Mentees & ALUMNAE: Networking

Evening program

For closing, "kite-mentoring" and eument-net organized a joint dinner and networking for all attendees at "Paradies" - a traditional beer garden in Freiburg.