ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme

I. Summary
The ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme is an online programme, and aims at giving female professionals interested in nephrology (physicians, researchers, biologists, nurses, nutritionists, etc.) – “the mentee” – an opportunity to exchange experiences with an ERA member who has attended one of the courses supported by ERA at Oxford Saïd Business School (Women Transforming Leadership Programme and Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme), to explore leadership skills and strengthen female leaderships.

The programme is based on a personal relationship between the participants. The mentee is a female professional, who wants to gain and develop her leadership skills, being in a leadership role or with realistic aspirations regardless of the candidate’s current position. The WERA Board and, if the WERA Board requires, the ERA Council main ex-officio officers (President, Secretary General, Treasurer and Renal Science Chair), will decide whether the mentee candidate is eligible for the mentee position based on the candidate’s CV and application form. The mentee is paired with a mentor from whom to learn and receive guidance. The mentor is a professional who has experience in leadership and has attended one of the courses at Oxford Saïd Business School. This mentorship programme is a partnership of two equals, both sharing full responsibility for communication, growth, feedback, and providing follow-through.

II. ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme
1. Purpose
The primary purpose of the ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme is to support the professional and career development in leadership roles of the mentee.
Programme objectives are:

• To empower women leadership in nephrology by strengthening leadership
  skills.
• To foster professional growth of mentees through guidance, experience sharing and mentorship provided by women professionals working in nephrology trained in leadership.

2. Role of the Mentor
Mentors are invited among those who have attended one of the courses supported by ERA at Oxford Saïd Business School (Women Transforming Leadership Programme and Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme). The mentee expects respect and commitment to her growth and development from the mentor.

Mentors should be open to covering a wide range of topics related to women’s and healthcare leadership.

3. Programme Structure
The virtual mentorship programme will consist of a minimum of five online sessions.

The first and last sessions will be interactive online group sessions, involving all mentors and mentees accepted into the programme.

The opening group session will focus on discussing expectations and outlining how the mentoring sessions will be structured.

The final group session will serve as a wrap-up meeting to reflect on progress and outcomes.

Each mentor–mentee pair will also hold at least one individual sessions per month via electronic means, each lasting a minimum of 1.5 hours.

Mentors and mentees can schedule extra sessions and continue their professional relationship if both agree.

4. General Rules
Both the mentor and the mentee should be active female ERA Full active members.

Communication between them (once per month is the recommended number of meetings during a 3-month period), will be maintained via electronic means.

All information (professional and personal) should be treated as confidential or at the level of confidentiality discussed and agreed upon.

The mentor can only take on one or a maximum of two mentees each year.

The mentee can have only one mentor.

The formal length of the programme is 3 months. After this period, the participants may continue in an informal mentorship relationship based on a mutual agreement between them. A mentee may benefit from this programme only once.

The mentee will be given the opportunity to indicate their preferred mentors (1st, 2nd and 3rd choice) from a list of potential mentors available in the ERA website.

Every mentor will be acknowledged on the ERA website by publishing her short biography and photo including reference to the course attended at Oxford Saïd Business School (Women Transforming Leadership Programme or Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme).

The official language of this programme is English.

5. Selection and matching process

Before starting the ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme, the ERA members who attended the courses at Oxford Saïd Business School during the previous years will be contacted to confirm their availability to be part of the programme as mentors.

Once a list of mentors is created, female ERA members will be able to apply for a mentee position. The Female Leadership Mentorship Programme will launch an open call for the mentees during Q1 each year. The programme will be open to all female YNP ERA Full active member interested in nephrology, such as physicians, researchers, biologists, nurses, nutritionists, etc. All candidates must submit the Mentee Application Form (Annex 1) with CV attached.

The maximum number of mentee positions will be based on the number of mentors since a mentor can have one or a maximum two mentees.

For participation in this programme, both the mentee and the prospective mentor must reside in different countries.

After an administrative check of minimum requirements by ERA HQs, mentees will be admitted to the program based on the order in which their applications are received, following a “first come, first served” policy.

The match between available mentors and mentees will be under the responsibility of the WERA Board based on their Application Forms. All matches should be approved by WERA Board and notified to the ERA Council.

Once matched, the mentee and mentor sign a Mentorship Agreement (Annex 2) outlining a brief plan with goals and methods.

6. Evaluation
The programme process will be measured annually to ensure that the rules outlined in this regulation are followed. The ERA will maintain email contact with the participants to detect any problems and support them with ideas for mentorship activities.

To evaluate the effectiveness and outcomes of each mentorship programme, a report must be submitted to the ERA HQ, at the end of the mentorship period. The method that will be used will follow the GROW model: both the mentor and mentee write down the Goal of the mentorship programme and the Reality of accomplishments, describe the Options, end with a Wrap-up that lists the milestones in the progress that has been made at the end of the programme. The Final Report will include the GROW model and a narrative report of the most significant achievements (Annex 3). This report must be submitted by 1 month after the final group session. The report will be evaluated and approved by the WERA Chair.

Upon approval of the Final Report, the mentee will receive a certificate of recognition. This document will include the year of the Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme and the name of the mentor, and it will be signed by the ERA President and the Chair of WERA.

In addition, at the end of the programme, both mentors and mentees should reply to an online questionnaire to provide feedback to the ERA regarding the usefulness of the programme itself (Annex 4).

III. Role of the WERA Board
The WERA Board will be directly involved in the programme coordination and will have the commitment, ability and authority to oversee the ERA Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme.

Specific roles are to:

• Promote the programme within the Society.
• Select and approve mentee.
• Guarantee organisational commitment to the programme, including information on the Female Leadership Virtual Mentorship Programme; requesting information from the mentors and mentees about the programme process; communicating procedures for submitting evaluations; building enthusiasm about the programme and encouraging active participation.
• Communicate what has been accomplished and what is pending, as well as an annual report of the programme to the ERA Council outlining the annual performance/development of the programme and its best or more significant outcomes.

IV. Annexes

1. Mentee Application Form
2. Mentorship Agreement
3. Final Report: GROW model and narrative report
4. Programme Evaluation Questionnaire

Last update: February 2026