Pilot mentoring scheme will help develop researchers’ administrative data skills

ADR UK is piloting a mentoring scheme through ADR England, to support applicants to our Research Fellowship funding calls. All applicants to our open funding opportunity – for research using ADR England flagship datasets – are invited to request a mentor through the pilot scheme. This funding opportunity is currently open for applications.

This pilot mentoring programme will support researchers using linked administrative data who may have: 

 

• may have little or no experience using linked administrative data,
• may have limited quantitative analysis skills,
• would like advice relating to ADR UK specific outputs, for example Data Insight or Data Explained publications), and/or how to engage with policymakers and other stakeholders.

How to apply for a mentor 

If you are planning to apply to the  upcoming ADR UK Research Fellowship opportunity and would like help to find a mentor to cost into your proposal, please email ADRFellowships@esrc.ukri.org by 4 September 2023. Please adhere to this deadline so that your mentor has sufficient time to review your application and write a letter of support.

Mentors will be drawn from the pool of current and former ADR UK Research Fellows. Applicants will receive profiles of available mentors and select their top three choices. ADR UK will then match the mentees with mentors, depending on the availability of mentors. We cannot guarantee that a match will be made.  

Mentoring can help build a stronger community for administrative data research 

Lack of expertise is a key barrier to the use of administrative data for research. By piloting this mentoring scheme, ADR UK hopes to support increasing numbers of researchers to use this type of data. The programme will develop the skills of new ADR UK Research Fellows and help to build their confidence in a range of research tasks.  

Mentoring has been a long-established practice in the business community. More recently, the benefit of formal mentoring within academia in support of junior academics has been increasingly recognised. 

The benefits of participating in a mentoring programme are not limited to the mentees. Mentors will contribute to the development of a broad community of researchers using ADR England flagship datasets, extending their professional networks and becoming more confident leaders in their field.  

ADR UK will seek to follow established best practices in running formal mentoring programmes. For example, relationships will be mentee-led with each mentee having unique goals. Key to a successful mentoring relationship is strong-buy-in from those involved and a sense of ownership of the process from the mentee. It will be up to the mentee to determine what is needed from the relationship and to ensure their mentor is aware of these needs. With this in mind, ADR UK has created guidance documents for both mentors and mentees, as well as space for both parties to identify what they require from the relationship.  

If you are applying to the open ADR UK Research Fellowship opportunity using ADR England flagship datasets and would like help to find a mentor to cost into your proposal, please email ADRFellowships@esrc.ukri.org by 4 September 2023.

This article has been updated from a version previously published on 6 December 2022.