#ScienceForUkraine has joined forces with PushFar to support the Ukrainian academic community
A grass-root initiative, #ScienceForUkraine, has taken the next step in safeguarding the continuity of Ukraine’s scientific breakthroughs, by partnering with PushFar, a leading online mentoring platform.
#ScienceForUkraine was launched at the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine and is managed by an international community of volunteers, aiming to support the displaced Ukrainian academic community in navigating UK academia.
The scheme supports scholars at risk by providing important information about funding opportunities, raising awareness amongst funding bodies and national governments of the need for support, and building partnerships between Ukrainian and international academic institutions and research organisations.
When the group was first formed, it was all run manually, with volunteers having to search through hundreds of emails and spreadsheets to pair up potential mentoring pairs, however, the organisation has now partnered with mentoring platform PushFar, providing access to its smart algorithm to streamline the scheme – allowing volunteers to use their time more widely.
When Ed Johnson, co-founder and CEO of PushFar, heard about the work of the orgnaisation, he created them a bespoke secure site to operate on, completely free of charge. He saw the opportunity to help a country in need, whilst progressing scientific causes at the same time.
Dr Anna Bobak, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow who founded and co-oordinates the #ScienceForUkraine UK Academic Mentoring Scheme along with Dr Maria-Eichel Vogel and Prof. Igor Potapov commented on the partnership: “Our mission is to help Ukrainian researchers navigate UK academia. We do this by seeking out subject-specific UK mentors at the same career level and pairing them with Ukrainian colleagues. The goals of the mentoring partnerships vary from networking and profile building to joint paper writing and applying for grants.
“We previously managed the scheme manually using an email account and a spreadsheet, so when Ed kindly allowed us to use PushFar at no cost, we couldn’t have been happier! It has helped us enormously with streamlining the administration of the scheme and made it much more manageable. We are extremely grateful for all the help with onboarding, continuous technical support, and ultimately for helping us help Ukrainian academics at such a difficult time.”
Ed Johnson CEO and Co-Founder of PushFar commented: “We founded PushFar with the goal of helping people make connections, and this project does just that! We are so proud as an organisation to be able to play even a small part in helping the academics and people of Ukraine. I know #ScienceForUkraine does amazing work, and I cannot wait to see it continue.”
If you want to take the next step in your progression and find your own mentoring match, you can join PushFar for free at: www.pushfar.com.
