pd|hub to lead discussion of mentorship needs at 2026 NPA Annual Conference

Join us at the 2026 National Postdoctoral Association Annual Conference in San Francisco on Friday, March 13 for an interactive session, Contribute to Change: Advancing Postdoctoral Career Development Through a New Mentorship Action Collaborative. 

Mentorship in the research environment is essential for supporting postdoctoral career development, yet postdocs and mentors alike consistently identify insufficient mentorship as a significant challenge. In this session, Professional Development Hub (pd|hub) and the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) will invite the community to explore needs, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening career-related mentorship in postdoctoral training. The session is part of our launch of the new NIH-funded pd|hub Mentorship Action Collaborative, through which we will be developing and testing practical, adaptable, and easy to use resources--sourced from across the community and developed de novo--that meet the needs of mentors and mentees in research environments. 

This NPA session offers a unique opportunity for information gathering at the start of this exciting NIH-funded initiative. We will begin by introducing evidence-based frameworks defining key stages and complexities of career development. Participants will then engage in small group discussions to (a) share needs and challenges from the postdoc, administrator, and faculty mentor perspectives, and (b) identify actions the community and this initiative can take to effect meaningful change. 

Discussion themes from this session will be synthesized into a broader report that will directly inform next steps for the project. We will also highlight opportunities for ongoing engagement through the newly forming pd|hub Mentorship Action Collaborative.

In addition, we will present a poster sharing some exciting updates about the pd|hub Collections: Foundations of Career Exploration for PhD Scientists during the Saturday poster session.

We welcome all members of the postdoc community—postdocs, faculty, training program directors, department chairs, university staff and administrators, PhD alumni, researchers, funders, change makers, and others—to join this conversation and the broader effort!