Call for UZH Mentoring Award 2023

The UZH Mentoring Award recognizes supervisors of PhD candidates at UZH for their outstanding achievements in the promotion of junior researchers. The award is presented on an annual basis.

The award is endowed with 15,000 Swiss francs and will be distributed among three award winners. The award ceremony will take place as part of a public event.

Jury

The awards are granted by a jury consisting of five junior researchers (three PhD candidates and two postdocs) from UZH.

The submission process: Nomination by junior researchers

Candidates are nominated by the junior researchers they supervise. The following considerations can be the basis for a nomination (the list of possible, but not necessary, considerations serves as a suggestion and is not exhaustive):

• Does the supervisor provide a supportive and stimulating environment (situational and participative leadership, fostering a culture of constructive, open and forward-looking feedback, valuing and fulfilling the duty of care)?
• Are junior researchers inspired and guided to achieve excellence in academia (essential methods, concepts, and cultures of their discipline, but also openness to failure, learning from mistakes, and creative approaches to problems)?
• Does the supervisor convey the importance of academic integrity as well as good research practices based on Open Science principles?
• Does mentoring include advising, positioning, and connecting junior researchers for future careers within and/or outside of academia?
• The supervisor is committed to supporting junior researchers in ways that are open and transformative in addressing social exclusion and discrimination. (To ensure an inclusive and supportive work environment, the supervisor considers relevant experiences*) that shape the academic and non-academic daily life of the junior researcher).  

Candidates must be conducting research at UZH at the time of nomination. All junior researchers matriculated in doctoral studies at UZH and postdocs at UZH who have completed their doctorate at UZH are eligible to nominate a supervisor. There must be a formal or structurally recognized supervisory relationship between the nominee and the person making a nomination.

Instructions for documents to be submitted:

• Please submit only one nomination form and one detailed presentation in open format per nominated person.
• In the case of nominations by several persons or groups, please include the details of all nominating persons in the same nomination form and formulate a joint abstract.
• In principle, you are free to select and emphasize those aspects of the nominee's presentation that you feel are most valuable and crucial to your mentoring experience. The framework is deliberately left open in order not to anticipate the individuality of such experiences and their depictability.
• Nomination materials may be submitted in English or German. The materials provided will be treated confidentially by GRC. Uses for communication or award purposes will be agreed upon with the nominating junior researcher

All submitted documents should be sent to: grants@grc.uzh.ch

For questions and feedback, please email: Marco Toscano

Award process

Based on the nominations and the reflection texts, the jury will determine the award winners in an award meeting.

Basis for assessment:

All documents to be submitted serve as the basis of assessment for the Mentoring Award. In making its decision, the jury is guided by the following vision for the mentoring of junior researchers at UZH:

Junior researchers perform their tasks in teaching, qualification and research in a phase of life that is associated with many uncertainties. UZH is therefore committed to transparent career and decision paths and enables junior researchers to plan their careers in the best possible way. PhD candidates should receive the best possible support to develop their skills according to their ambitions and to flourish in an intellectually stimulating environment. To provide an inclusive and supportive working environment, UZH takes into account relevant experiences* of social exclusion and discrimination that may shape the academic and non-academic daily life of early career researchers. UZH promotes a culture of appreciation and recognition of diversity and supports PhD candidates in various possible career paths.

* Relevant experiences may include: racialization through socially ascribed stereotyping; the interaction of individual physical or mental impairments and disability through societal frameworks; gender as a socially ascribed gender characteristic and role based on biological sex; socioeconomic status (education, income, wealth) of the junior researcher or their social backgrounds.