Mentors are a key part of the WEAR Sustain network, and crucial in helping the awarded projects to develop over the course of their funding. In this short article we’ll explain a little more about what the mentor does to support the teams, and how you can get involved.
Each selected team is allocated a mentor who can advise and practically support the selected teams in their field of expertise. When we recruit mentors we look for specific skill sets that will bring additional value to the projects and the wider community.
Who are the WEAR Sustain mentors?
The services that mentors are asked to provide include support in following categories: Business; Data & Data Models; Design & Aesthetics; Ethics & Sustainability; ICT Technology; Legal; Prototyping; User-centred Design; Validation Trails/Living Lab Experiments and Venturing but each project will have a bespoke need so if you are interested in being a mentor, but don’t fit into one of the categories please do get in touch.
There are two different types of mentorship:
- A main mentor accompanies their team over the whole project period, and is the team’s first point of contact. Some mentors may not be able to commit for the full period, for which case we suggest co-mentorships, or dividing the project time into two 3-month periods to be covered by two main mentors. This can also be beneficial for the team, as they may require different expertise throughout their project time.
- Additional mentors can join the team’s process at any time during the project, and there is no minimum time required to spend with teams. This may be useful, if the support service can be provided in short time or is particularly useful at specific moments in the progress. We estimate that a team may make use of 5-10 additional mentors during their project.
Commitments
The main mentor will spend a minimum of 10 days over the 6 month project period and scheduling is negotiated between mentor and team. Mentoring will take place in person or remotely, but it is recommended to meet up in person at the beginning of the project period.
What do the mentors get?
As well as the satisfaction of working with some of our innovative funded projects mentors negotiate services and time commitment individually with the teams, and teams will pay the main mentor through their voucher budget. Fees are negotiated directly between the main mentor and team. Costs for travel and consumables will be paid in addition by the teams, and require negotiation with the team and WEAR project coordinator.
Want to become a mentor?
We are actively seeking mentors for Open Call 2 teams, and there still might be an opportunity to support some of the Open Call 1 projects as they move into their middle and end stages. Find out more at http://legacy.wearsustain.eu/how-to-participate
If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please contact us at info@wearsustain.eu