AdvanceMent Mentoring
In the next round 2025/26, AdvanceMent will be held in English.
Welcome to AdvanceMent Freiburg
Our structured mentoring programme AdvanceMent supports researchers from all faculties of the university in the postdoctoral phase as well as in the advanced doctoral phase by promoting their strategic career planning and development.
In two programme lines, AdvanceMent creates opportunities for early career researchers to orientate themselves professionally with the help of mentoring and to successfully master the next career step through reflection, feedback, networking, collegial support and skills development.
One-to-one mentoring and peer support are complemented by a tailored range of workshops and coaching to promote the mentees’ professional development.
To help you decide which programme line is best suited to you, please refer to FAQ Mentees.
Two programme lines
@academia
For researchers aiming for an academic career.
- duration 12-15 months
- programme language 2025 English
- one-to-one mentoring with (professionally) experienced mentors
- peer support
- induction into mentoring, interim review and final review
- at least 3 workshops on career-related topics
- individual coaching on application/career planning
- support in mentoring process & career development by programme leader
@newpathways
For researchers that aim for a career in the non-academic job market in business, society and culture.
- duration 12-15 months
- programme language 2025 English
- one-to-one mentoring with (professionally) experienced mentors
- peer support
- induction into mentoring, interim review and final review
- at least 3 workshops on career-related topics
- individual coaching on application/career planning
- support in mentoring process & career development by programme leader
The Five Elements of AdvanceMent
Mentoring
One-to-one mentoring: AdvanceMent Freiburg offers the classic one-to-one mentoring between mentee and mentor (also called tandem) in both programme lines. Mentees and programme leader jointly search for (professionally) experienced mentors from various fields who will advise the mentees with their personal experience on what steps to take next in their career.
Peer group mentoring: the programme lines @academia and @newpathways are further divided into smaller peer groups based on professional goals and areas of expertise. The peer group meets in a self-organized manner approximately every 4-6 weeks over the course of the programme to network and support each other. Each peer group determines their own goals, topics and the manner of working together.
Development of Competencies
AdvanceMent offers workshops on career planning, leadership, communication and application, as well as mental health. If personally required, additional workshops from the Graduate Centre (GraCe) for doctoral researchers and the Centre for Advanced Researcher Development (CARD) for postdoctoral researchers can also be attended.
Process Support
The one-to-one and peer group mentoring are supported by workshops that accompany the process. These include the following events:
- introductory workshop
- mid-term review workshop
- final review workshop
The AdvanceMent guidelines also provide support in shaping the mentoring relationship.
Coaching
Mentees benefit from a wide range of coaching and counselling services that are available in addition to mentoring to assist with orientation, decision-making, and skills development. These include:
- accompanying advice from the programme leader
- collegial peer counseling within the peer groups
- individual consulting services with coaches in the context of career planning and application workshops
- possibility to participate in coaching offered within CARD (for postdocs) as well as by GraCe (for doctoral candidates) .
Networking
The programme promotes networking between mentees and with other professionals within and outside the university through network meetings, informative events, and expert discussions with speakers from academia and business (e.g. lunch talks, career lounge, biography talks).
