Mentoring in Research |  | Repeat several of his key experiments... |
|  |  | Mentoring is more than providing supervision; it is an interactive relationship. For a mentoring relationship to be successful for both mentor and student, it needs to involve certain elements including: Honesty as the core value from both mentor and student; mutual respect, trust, and compassion; and sharing and listening. As with any professional position, a faculty member has multiple demands on his/her time and priorities. Being a mentor to students as well as the principal investigator on a research project can lead to potentially conflicting situations. Mentors should provide a nurturing instructional environment in which students can gain experience in becoming researchers themselves. Recipients of research grants have an obligation to the granting agency based on the proposal submitted. In addition, they have an obligation both to themselves professionally and to those whom they support (graduate students, technicians) to maintain funding for the research. An important part of the mentoring process is to share this information with students in the early stages of the mentoring relationship. Once students are familiar with how research is supported financially, they are more likely to be active supporters during the grant submission process.