Mentor Mates: Peer Mentoring - DREAM+PLAN Together

DREAM+PLAN Kick Off Meeting - Day 3 Thursday 16th October: DCs - Breakout Room, 1.30pm - 3.00pm

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Blurb:

Research doesn’t have to be a solo journey. In this session, we will introduce you to Mentor Mates, our DREAM+PLAN peer mentoring model, which emphasizes reciprocal learning and mutual support. We will explore the power of peer mentoring—where researchers at the same stage support each other, share insights, and grow together. The objective is to provide you with an understanding how peer mentoring works in practice and equip you with some best practices and tips. You will discover how peer mentoring builds resilience, boosts productivity, and creates a collaborative research environment. Together, we will set the stage for your peer mentoring journey and prepare you to thrive as part of a team.

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Presenters:

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Dr. Sophie Altrock 

Born and raised in Germany, Sophie started her undergraduate studies of digital media at Leuphana University and City University of Hong Kong to explore the various practical and theoretical aspects of technology and its impact on society. She went on to complete a master’s degree in Information Systems and Digital Innovation at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where, at a broader scale, she examined strategies and concepts that guide digitalisation in organisations.

 

After working three years in a global IT and management consultancy, Sophie joined the MSCA project EINST4INE as an early-stage researcher and relocated to Barcelona. As a cotutelle PhD student, she was jointly enrolled at RMIT University (Australia) and the University of Agder (Norway), supervised by Anne-Laure Mention and Tor Helge Aas. Her doctoral research investigated the impact of service automation and augmentation on workers, with a focus on AI-driven self-service technologies in financial and healthcare services.

 

Following her PhD, Sophie continues as a Research Fellow at RMIT Europe, contributing to the DREAM+PLAN and SMAR3TS projects while pursuing her passion for enabling technology adoption for resilient, human-centric, and future proof healthcare services.

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Dr. Kateryna Kryzhanivska

Dr. Kateryna Kryzhanivska is a researcher at LUT University Business School in Finland, and her current research interests include digital forms of organizing collaboration and innovation, regional resilience, and regeneration in response to geopolitical and ecological crises. She has recently completed her PhD, exploring the dynamics of collaboration processes and how digital platforms enable collaborative innovation in response to grand societal challenges.

 

She brings a unique combination of research and innovation experience that she gained in Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Finland, and Australia. Her research has been published in journals such as Regional Studies, Information & Organization, and Review of Managerial Science. Her expertise is complemented by impact training, enabled through collaboration with her co-supervisor – Prof. Anne-Laure Mention, during the research visits to RMIT University (Australia) and contribution to the EU H2020 MSCA-Staff Exchange R&I project OpenInnoTrain.

 

She has strong skills in qualitative research, experience in leading and volunteering in crisis contexts, and communicating science for policy. Dr. Kryzhanivska is also active in research impact and co-leads the Special Interest Group “Frontiers of Impact” within global ISPIM innovation community.