Mentoring has a powerful role to play in helping university tech transfer professionals grow, connect, and thrive — at all career stages.

TenU RISE has shown that the learning goes both ways: both mentors and mentees have gained new perspectives, sharpened their skills, and found space for honest reflection. To help others benefit from this approach, we’ve developed a practical guide based on the ethos of TenU RISE — offering tools and principles for creating safe and supportive mentoring environments across the sector, even outside the formal programme.

We designed TenU RISE to foster growth and development among tech transfer professionals through structured mentoring. Since starting the programme in 2024, we have had 41 participants from 34 institutions. TenU RISE is unique because it brings together an international network of TenU Future Leaders Programme alumni committed to empowering leadership. The programme is still growing so there are increasing opportunities to connect with and learn from professionals in other university technology transfer offices (TTOs).

We’re now well into our second TenU RISE cohort. In 2025, we successfully matched 26 mentees with mentors, a significant increase from 16 last year. Evaluation feedback from the first cohort has been overwhelmingly positive and has already led us to make improvements to the programme. Through the online platform we use, mentees and mentors can give direct feedback after each session, and across 122 sessions they gave their experience a 4.9 out of 5 average score.

We also collected more in-depth feedback through live sessions and a survey, through which mentors and mentees have reported growth in various aspects of their emotional intelligence and substantive tech transfer learning. Several mentees stated that they act with more confidence, effectiveness and efficiency, and prioritise their own professional development more highly as a result; 88% commented on how they felt empowered, and 66% gave examples for how mentoring has led to a shift in the way they think about themselves and the world around them – in a word that mentoring for them has been transformational. Mentees have consistently emphasised how the in-depth conversations with their Mentor, a knowledgeable colleague from a different institution, have encouraged them to be open and self-reflect deeply, which in turn has enabled them to be more authentic and effective at work.

One of the most positive learnings from the programme is just how beneficial being a mentor is for mentors themselves. 100% of those who answered found being a mentor empowering and transformational. Mentors reported development especially in the domains of social awareness and relationship management.

TenU RISE actively fosters broad participation across the sector, bringing together a group of professionals representing a wide range of backgrounds and professions. We also recognise the importance of giving greater attention to neurodiversity and mental health as we continue to expand opportunities for all participants to thrive.

Finally, the high demand for TenU RISE suggests a clear and ongoing need for mentoring across the university technology transfer sector. In response, we have developed a practical guide rooted in the programme’s ethos: the guide is designed to support others in creating safe, supportive spaces for mentoring beyond the formal TenU RISE framework, helping to extend its impact more broadly across the sector.