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This rubric can help you assess the state of development of your department/program from the stage of considering a mission statement to having highly developed mission statement across several key areas:

• clarity of purpose
• identification of scope and stakeholders
• acts of service and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in graduate education
• alignment with core values and missions across the department, field, research group(s), university, etc.

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Purpose

This worksheet can help you identify your core values, or the ways of thinking and being that you hold most important. It can also help you explore how to practice living your core values through decision-making and actions in academic and professional relational environments, such as within a research team or a one-to-one mentor/mentee relationship.

Instructions

Step 1

Review the comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of values in this resource.

Step 2

Identify and circle up to 10 values that resonate most with you.

Step 3

Reflect upon the 10 core values you identified and select the 5 values most important to you. Next, select the 2 core values that are essential to who you are and underlie your actions.

Step 4

After you identify your 2 core values, complete this worksheet to capture:

• How do you already, or aspire, to demonstrate your core values within your professional and academic relationships?
• What tendencies do you have that may be misaligned with your values?
• What circumstance might make it difficult to act in accordance to your values (e.g., times of stress, conflict, etc.)?

Step 5

Identify a few tactics to realign your decisions with your core values.

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Purpose

The purpose of this tool is to help mentees self-reflect and identify their top mentorship needs in the following domains: academic, professional and career, and personal & well-being. This resource corresponds with the FAIM Mentor Network Map.

Step 1: Reflect Carefully

Read through the “Mentoring Component” column in the tables below. Each table represents one of three domains of mentorship: academic, professional, as well as personal and well-being.

Step 2: Determine Suitability

In the appropriate column, indicate if you “need” or “want” each mentoring component, or if are “unsure.” Use the appropriate column to capture if you have a need, want, or are uncertain about that component of mentoring from your primary advisor and/or from your broader mentor network. If you are unsure whether you need this type of mentorship at your current academic stage, indicate this as “Unsure” and make a note in the right-most “Additional Notes” column to describe your uncertainty. Plan to raise these items to one of your mentors and/or your primary academic advisor for additional guidance. If you have a mentoring need or want that is not already reflected in the prompts, list it in the “Other” row(s).

Step 3: Identify Sources of Mentorship

After identifying your needs and wants, record the mentors you currently have in the ‘Mentor Names’ column. Then, identify other individuals from who you want to receive mentorship and add to your network. Consider individuals you already know and people you may want to build rapport with.

Step 4: Repeat

Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the “Professional and Career Domain” and “Personal and Well-being Domain” tables.

Step 5: Revisit and Refine

Revisit and refine as circumstances change. For example, a mentor may no longer have capacity, you may meet a new prospective mentor, or as you continue forward in your academic program. As you progress, your needs and wants may change as well as what you prioritize.

Using the FAIM Mentor Network Map

No one individual can meet all needs and/or wants from mentorship. After mentees complete this assessment, we recommend they fill out the FAIM Mentor Network Map (immediately below). In that tool, mentees can record and display mentors that meet their mentoring needs and/or wants. 

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Purpose

This resource should be used at the initiation of a mentoring relationship to allow the mentor and mentee to self-reflect on how each of them understands mentorship and to identify where the mentor's and mentee's beliefs converge and diverge. 

Instructions

Step 1

The mentor and mentee should independently review and respond to the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet. 

Step 2

A mentor and a mentee should then collaboratively review their responses within the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet, ask questions, and make clarifications. This will allow mentors and mentees to more easily identify where their ideas converge and diverge as they collaboratively establish mutual expectations.

As a next step, a mentor and mentee should meet to discuss and begin drafting their Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan, which will serve as their mentoring plan. During this initial discussion, the mentor and mentee should begin to communicate about their mutual expectations for their mentoring relationship.

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Purpose

Mentors and mentees should individually reflect and collaboratively discuss, set, communicate, and refine their mutual expectations.

Instructions

We recommend mentors and mentees engage with the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet prior to discussing and filling out the FAIM Mentoring Expectations Agreement Plan. The Scales worksheet can help mentors and mentees identify where their ideas about mentorship may converge and diverge.

We also recommend mentors and mentees use the FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet to identify and explore how to live your core values through decision-making and behaviors in academic and professional relational environments.

Step 1

The mentor and mentee meet and use draft responses and the FAIM Core Mutual Expectations for Graduate Education to inform the collaborative development of their personalized FAIM Mentoring Expectations Agreement Plan. 

Step 2

The mentor and mentee review, discuss, and finalize their individualized FAIM Mentoring Expectations Agreement Plan. The plan should reflect a mentor’s and mentee’s collective understanding of mutual expectations and commitments to one another and serve as a guide for the ongoing management of their mentoring relationship.

Step 3

The mentor and mentee should revisit the FAIM Mentoring Expectations Agreement Plan on a cyclical basis to make changes reflective of where the mentee is in their degree progression and the current needs of the mentoring relationship.

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Purpose

The purpose of this FAIM Mentor Network Map is to help graduate student mentees explore their mentoring needs and visualize their mentor network. It is a practical tool to help identify existing mentors and the roles they play within the mentee’s network across various domains. It also helps identify areas of unmet mentoring needs. For these areas of unmet mentoring needs, a map can inform a mentee’s plans to expand their existing mentor network and who and why they will seek to bring into their network.

Instructions

Step 1: Self-Reflect and Prioritize Areas for Mentorship

Mentees should review the mentor categories in the FAIM Mentor Network Map, self-reflect on their current academic and professional stage, and identify their immediate mentoring needs. Mentees should also consider the mentoring needs and wants likely to arise during the next stage of their academic and/or professional careers.

Mentees should circle or otherwise indicate the areas in which they currently need mentoring and support within each domain: academic, professional, and well-being.

Step 2: Identify Mentors Who Can Provide Appropriate Mentorship

Mentees should add names of current mentors in each of the areas that fall under the three primary domains of the FAIM Mentor Network Map. These should be individuals that the mentees identify as already providing forms of mentoring most relevant to the mentee’s current stage in their academic or professional career(s). This includes formal mentors with whom there is an established mentoring relationship as well as informal mentors with whom there are more casual relationships and less structured mentoring.

Mentees should then add names of prospective mentors in those same areas. Mentees should especially identify prospective mentors in areas where they presently have little to no mentorship.

Step 3: Strategize & Look Forward

Mentees should self-reflect and identify their emerging mentoring needs. For example, a first-year graduate student mentee may prioritize identifying role models as they explore how they want to engage with a department’s cultural norms. Mentors who can provide substantive and extensive feedback may be more appropriate for a doctoral candidate.

Because mentoring needs will change over time and context, mentees should routinely review and revise their FAIM Mentor Network Map. Examples of pivotal moments of when to revisit this map include when a mentee is preparing for or has met a significant academic milestone or when preparing to enter the job market.

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This tool is designed to support mentees in identifying, approaching, and cultivating mentoring relationships that align with their academic, professional, and personal growth. By using thoughtful communication strategies and personalized approaches, mentees can build a network of mentors who provide diverse guidance and support. The resource provides suggestions on how to initiate conversations with both new and current mentors, tailored prompts for assessing mentor fit, and best practices for engaging meaningfully with prospective mentors. This tool also helps mentees refine existing relationships to better meet evolving needs.

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This worksheet is meant to be adaptable across fields and contexts – despite differences in research approaches and fundamental understandings of the world – to help mentees develop a plan for academic and professional skill-building and development that aligns with their immediate and post-graduate aspirations.

This worksheet helps mentees: 

• Summarize their academic and professional aspirations
• Self-assess strengths and opportunities for development
• Create a set of academic and professional development goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable/discernable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)
• Develop an action plan
• Identify strategies to navigate challenges
• Refine academic and professional development goals and action plan

Science Careers Individual Development Plan helps employees define and pursue their career goals. myIDP provides:

• exercises to help you examine your skills, interests, and values.

• a list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit your skills and interests.

• a tool for setting strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you on track.

• articles and resources to guide you through the process.

Imagine PhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Imagine PhD provides tools for scholars to:

• assess their career-related skills, interests, and values.
• explore careers paths appropriate to their disciplines.
• create self-defined goals.
• map out next steps for career and professional development success.
•  

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Purpose

The FAIM Guide to Establish Research Group Shared Expectations is a practical tool for research group discussions in the following areas:

• communicating and clarifying the mission of the research group;
• defining shared values for scholarly engagement within the group;
• sustaining and refining shared values;
• establishing community norms and standards; and
• creating and maintaining supportive and productive research environments.

Mentors and mentees can use this tool to individually reflect and then collaboratively discuss, set, communicate, and refine their shared group expectations.

Step 1

All group members should review the prompts in this resource as well as the FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet independently ahead of a group meeting to prime themselves for a productive discussion.

The FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet can help you identify and explore how to live your core values through decision-making and behaviors in academic and professional relational environments.

Step 2

Schedule a research group meeting dedicated to creating shared expectations agreements.

Step 3

During a meeting, the research group should discuss each item, and individual group members should share their thoughts. The faculty mentor should help make sure every group member has an opportunity to share their reflections and ideas before, during, and/or after the group meeting.

Step 4

Codify the group’s collective shared expectations agreements.

Step 5

Cyclically engage in discussions to refine the research group shared expectations, especially during times of transition (e.g., project completion, changes to the group’s composition).

Notes

Research Group Guidebooks, Manuals, etc.

Developing a shared expectations agreements is distinct from a group guidebook. The former requires dialogue and co-construction within the entire group, whereas the latter is prescribed by the head of the research team, or faculty mentors. A sample handbook can be found here.

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A guide to develop a mentoring plan for sponsored projects for the NSF, NIH, and other funding agencies. This mentoring plan can be adapted to meet the contextual needs of a PI and is meant to be the foundation for what should become a more individualized plan for a specific mentee. 

See Also

• Cornell University Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation
  • Mentoring Plans and Individual Development Plans – NSF 
  • Responsible Conduct of Research – Research Integrity at Cornell
• NSF (24-1) Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) 
  • Chapter II.D.2.i(I), Mentoring Plan 
  • Chapter VII.B.7, Individual Development Plans for Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students 
    • Individual Development Plans are Section 10313 (42 U.S.C. § 18993) of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.  
  • Chapter VII.D.1.b(iv), Annual and Final Annual Project Reports 
• Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1)
  • 2 CFR § 200.4661 (Uniform Guidance) and institutional policies 
• Updates to NIH Institutional Training Grant Applications for Due Dates on or After January 25, 2025; Notice Number: NOT-OD-24-129
  • Updates to NIH Training Grant Applications – June 2024 Webinar
  • NIH Diversity in Extramural Programs – Building Participation: Recruitment and Retention
• Section 7008(a) of the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. § 1862o-1. Responsible Conduct of Research) 
  • RCR Mentoring Requirements: Section 7009 of the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act (42 USC 1862o–1).