A Mentoring Workshop focused on enhancing the success of doctoral candidates through effective supervision and mentoring was held as a part of the Alliance4Life_BRIDGE project in Brno, Czech Republic. This workshop was specially designed for directors of graduate programs, deans, vice deans for science, and other leaders involved in managing doctoral education at your institution. Realizing that PhD graduates serve as ambassadors for our institutions and greatly influence each university’s ability to attract future talent, the Medical University – Sofia sent two representatives to participate in the interactive workshop: Prof. Alexandrina Vodenicharova, MD, Dean of the Faculty for Public Health ‘Prof. Dr. Tsekomir Vodenicharov, PhD’, and Prof. Ivanka Dimova, MD, Head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diagnostics at MU-Sofia.
To address the doctoral needs, Dr. Med. Filip Sedlič from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, together with the WP4 team, have developed a tailored mentorship model for biomedical institutions across Central and Eastern Europe.
This interactive workshop shaped the mentorship model collaboratively, with expert contributions from partner organisation ORPHEUS representatives, including:
– Bob Harris (TBU) who presented his vision on ‘Strategy, Impact and Quality Assurance in Doctoral Supervision Training’
– Janet Carton discussed the international perspective on professional development for research supervisors, typical approaches, impact of changes in research assessment on supervision and promotion.
– John Creemers presented the European context, Open Science and AI in Doctoral Education.
Additionally, participants gained insights into upcoming online workshops, secondment opportunities, and co-mentoring initiatives for their institutions. The workshop sparked many new ideas and opened new paths for improving doctoral supervision across Alliance4Life_BRIDGE partner institutions.
