Call for mentors: One Health Early Career Champions –program
The upcoming One Health Early Career Champions–program (ECC) offers you the opportunity to become a mentor of promising young doctoral researchers from Kenya and Finland. It brings together a group of talented early career researchers and academics from the universities of Helsinki and Nairobi.
The thematic focus of the program covers One Health research areas including virology, anti-microbial resistance, food and nutrition, environmental health, animal health, geography, social and education sciences. The program encourages participation from all disciplinary backgrounds while keeping in mind that you should have an understanding of how your own research related to the One Health -theme. Please note that you will need to justify your approach in the application.
The ECC program contributes to the strategic partnership between the universities of Helsinki and Nairobi. It facilitates career advancement and networking of up-and-coming doctoral researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds, focusing on One Health. The pilot group of the program started in early 2021, and second group in 2023. Now we are looking for members for the third group.
The selected mentors in the ECC programs will be responsible for two mentees, one from each university. The term of the 3rd round of the program is August 2025 – December 2026. During this time, you are expected to participate in regular mentee-mentor sessions and monthly seminars. The ECC program also includes four workshops, two of which will be organized online. The two on-site workshops will take place in Nairobi and in Helsinki. Travel costs will be covered by the University of Helsinki for a limited number of participants. Please note that all the events in the ECC program will be organized during regular office hours, between 9 AM and 5 PM. The workload required of ECC mentors is about four to six hours each month (comprising participation in the seminars and workshops and meeting the mentees). There will be no activities in July.
As a mentor, you will benefit from participating by:
- engaging and supporting the future champions
- knowledge sharing
- increasing your network
The requirements of a ECC mentor
- your expertise relates to One Health theme
- dedication to attend all events and activities of the ECC program
- you have supervised at least three doctoral researchers
The selection of mentors
The mentors will be selected so that all aspects of One Health will be covered. A maximum of one mentor will be chosen from each discipline / faculty / institution / department. In addition, the motivation to participate in the events of the program and the mentoring sessions will be used in the selection.
Please leave your application through this eform (https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/134249/lomake.html). The call for mentors is open 17 March to 16 April 2025.
For further information on this opportunity please do not hesitate to contact Mia Vehkaoja, (mia.vehkaoja@helsinki.fi) or Harri Mäcklin (harri.macklin@helsinki.fi) or visit our website.
Sincerely,
Your ECC Team
