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The mission of the Brainfood peer mentoring group is to connect young UZH researchers who are investigating the human brain using various neuroimaging methods and to help them expand their knowledge. To tailor the contents and the topics of Brainfood’s meetings to the needs and interests of its members, interested parties are encouraged to reach out with questions and suggestions for topics and speakers. Based on Brainfood’s vision for a peer mentoring group, the group offers the following:
Providing a platform for networking and peer feedback
Brainfood will provide opportunities for early- career researchers in the field of neuroimaging to meet their peers and strengthen local connections. Even though group members are working with similar data, they often do not know their peers from the local community, so they are not able to benefit from each other’’s knowledge and practical skills. The group will offer a physical and virtual (if needed) space for gathering neuroimaging researchers by organizing regular lunch seminars called “Food for Thought.” During these meetings, participants will be encouraged not only to get to know each other but to share their successes and struggles and contribute potential solutions to others’ difficulties. Ideally, this will ignite discussions, with participants receiving and providing advice based on their own knowledge and know-how. Additionally, Brainfood sees these meetings as a great opportunity for young scientists to practice important talks and presentations in front of their peers on different academic levels with knowledge on the methodology.
Learning opportunities with peers and advanced mentors.
We will expand the knowledge of our members on state-of-the-art methods in the field of non-invasive human neuroimaging research. We will organize hands-on workshops and invite guest speakers to provide insights into established techniques, new and helpful toolboxes, and cutting-edge research approaches from which the local community can profit. Ultimately our hope is that the members of the peer mentoring group will acquire or enhance their practical skills and be inspired to transfer elements of the new analytical or study conduction-related approaches to their personal projects after attending the workshops.
Supporting each other in the daily struggles
As requested by our peers, we facilitate 4 online troubleshooting sessions throughout the year (2 in the spring term and 2 in the fall term). This initiative comes as a follow-up to our Troubleshooting “Food for thought” session in 2023, when the attendees addressed their current technical struggles in front of the group and received helpful tips on how to solve or at least approach the issue.
Getting a glimpse into our peers’ research
We plan a whole-day symposium this summer. The symposium will give the participants the opportunity to briefly present themselves and showcase their current research. The academic part will be followed by a fun night including board games and a pub quiz to allow the attendees to interact in a more informal manner and to connect on a more personal level. We are looking forward to getting to know you and your research in this informal setting!
More details about the sessions are communicated via email few weeks before the respective events. For any questions, please reach out to us at brainfood@jacobscenter.uzh.ch.
As your Brainfood team, we are looking forward to meeting you and your peers and helping you expand your knowledge and network! For more details about us, you can check out our UZH pages:
We are immensely thankful to our advisory board members – Prof. Nora Raschle and Prof. Alexis Hervais-Adelman, who support our initiative. We are grateful to the Graduate School of the PhF and the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development for the funding of this year‘s events! We also want to thank the graduate campus for recognizing the need for a neuroimaging peer mentoring group and funded the first year of our Brainfood events.
Contact us at: brainfood@jacobscenter.uzh.ch
