Watching LEAP leap forward
EMBL celebrates 23 pioneering postdocs in inaugural LEAP mentoring programme.
An innovative EMBL program to address the ‘leaky pipeline’ for women in leadership roles in science celebrated a first year of mentoring postdocs and got an important boost in funding in 2021.
Twenty-three pioneering participants in EMBL’s Leadership and Excellence for Aspiring Postdocs (LEAP) programme selected mentors to refine their research vision and grow professional networks.
LEAP is a learner-led mentorship programme with external mentors tailored for female postdocs who want to pursue a career in academia as part of EMBL’s larger Equality Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy. It uses best practices in gender-inclusive leadership development that were encompassed in workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions co-developed with the LEAP postdocs.
LEAP is intended to enable women postdocs to challenge themselves and their environment as they strive for their next career step as a group leader, principal investigator, or assistant professor.
The programme is generously funded by the Friends of EMBL and kindly supported by EMBL’s alumni who are acting as external mentors, all of whom are group leaders or professors in universities or other institutes. In 2021, Eppendorf SE recognised the importance of LEAP, donating an additional 20,000 euros, enabling 20 additional female postdocs to gain the qualifications they need for managerial careers in scientific fields.
“The disparity between the number of men and women who hold managerial positions in the scientific community is a serious problem. Increasing the visibility of women in science is both a declared goal and an important concern at Eppendorf.”
— Eva van Pelt, Co-CEO and Chief Commercial Officer, Eppendorf SE
