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BIP: Inclusive Mentoring and Career Development for a Diverse Academia

April 20 - April 24
Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme. Faculty od Social Sciences

“Inclusive Mentoring and Career Development for a Diverse Academia” is a BIP designed to strengthen the capacity of mentors, mentees, and university staff to create inclusive and empowering mentoring relationships across the ChallengeEU alliance. The BIP combines academic input, intercultural learning, and practical workshops focused on mentoring, diversity, and inclusive leadership. Place: University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM), April 2026 Dates: 5 days on-site + online preparation and follow-up modules (TBE)

General Aim To strengthen the capacity of mentors, mentees and university staff to create inclusive and empowering mentoring relationships across the ChallengeEU alliance. The BIP combines academic input, intercultural learning and practical workshops focused on mentoring, diversity, and inclusive leadership.

Proposed Thematic Blocks:

  1. Inclusive Mentoring in Practice Introduction to the ChallengeEU mentoring framework. How to create equitable mentoring relationships (power dynamics, gender sensitivity, intersectionality). Building trust and confidentiality in mentoring pairs. Case studies from alliance partners.
  2. Communication and Feedback in Mentoring Active listening and reflective dialogue techniques. Constructive feedback and difficult conversations. Emotional intelligence and boundaries in mentoring. Microaggressions and bias awareness in academic communication.
  3. Intercultural and Cross-Border Mentoring Working across cultures: challenges and opportunities. Intercultural values in mentoring and leadership. Simulation exercises with international mentor-mentee pairs.
  4. Personal and Professional Growth Designing a personal mentoring plan and development goals. Self-reflection workshop: “From mentee to leader”. Resilience and wellbeing in academic careers.
  5. Networking and Community Building Open networking sessions among mentors and mentees from all regions. Guest lecture: e.g. Inclusive leadership in research and innovation ecosystems. Alliance showcase: ODEI good practices in partner universities. Social evening and cultural integration programme (Olsztyn City Tour, mentoring café).

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

  • Understand how diversity and inclusion principles (ODEI) can be integrated into mentoring and academic career development.
  • Gain practical skills in mentoring communication, feedback and boundary-setting.
  • Explore strategies for building trust, psychological safety and intercultural sensitivity in cross-border mentoring.
  • Reflect on their professional identity and leadership potential within an inclusive academic community.
  • Build a cross-alliance network of mentors, mentees and ODEI practitioners.

Expected Outputs and Impact

  • Development of a common mentoring plan template for all partners.
  • Strengthened mentor-mentee connections across institutions.
  • Development of the existing toolkits on inclusive mentoring practices.
  • Enhanced visibility of UWM and ChallengeEU leaders in inclusive mentoring and academic diversity.

Inclusive Mentoring and Career Development for a Diverse Academia:

Format & Credits Virtual sessions: April, 2026 On-site component in Olsztyn: April 20 – 24, 2026 Location: Faculty of Social Sciences, Dybowskiego 13, Olsztyn, Poland Credits: 3 ECTS

Target Group Participants in the ChallengeEU Mentoring Programme (mentees and mentors) will be accepted first. Requirements: English (B2). Deadlines Partner participation confirmation: December 1

Details