NIHR mentoring programme logic model

The NIHR Mentoring Programme supports NIHR Academy members to mentor others and to seek a mentor. The programme is open to awardees from a broad range of professional backgrounds and disciplinary context across the diverse health and social care landscape. The programme is available via two streams, one for early career researchers, supporting mentees from final year PhD up to two years postdoctoral, and mid-career researchers, supporting mentees that are more than two years postdoctoral.The programme is a formal 12 month mentoring programme with key evaluation points throughout and designed to support interdisciplinary collaboration. The programme includes a full continued professional development offering and prioritises those from backgrounds and disciplines that may not have previously had access to mentoring. The NIHR uses logic models to visually represent how a programme or research award is expected to achieve the outcomes, and resultant impact, that are defined during the development process of a programme or research award. A logic model then becomes an important tool in the process of evaluating a programme or award, which in turn guides a learning process of how a programme can be altered to better achieve its aims. The logic model is a linear flow diagram that reads from left to right, and is divided into the following sections: inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes and impact.