One Conversation at a Time: The Power of Peer Mentoring

What could a professor of music and a senior policy professional working in finance possibly gain from mentoring one another? Far more than you might expect – and their story is one I often use to show what makes our Peer Mentoring Scheme work so well.

Now in its fourth year, the scheme continues to strengthen relationships between researchers and policy professionals, fostering mutual learning, confidence, and collaboration across sectors. Delivered in partnership with the Policy Profession Unit since 2021, the scheme has supported more than 200 research and policy professionals, including nearly 60 this year from 13 government departments and 15 University of Oxford departments.  

Alongside the cross-sector cohort we run each year, we also piloted a subject-specific cohort, developed with the Oxford Climate Research Network this round. The focus on climate, energy and the environment brought together participants who shared both thematic interests and professional challenges, which in turn allowed for more focused conversations and longer-term connections. It was exciting to hear from peer mentors that these alignments encouraged ongoing collaboration, with several planning joint seminars, research support, and continued mentoring. We also saw peer mentors experimenting with work-shadowing, arranging reciprocal visits to each other’s organisations and thereby broadening their networks and seeing them at work.

Beyond one-to-one conversations, both cohorts joined a networking event over the summer. The programme combined workshops, panel discussions and a ‘speed networking’ session over lunch, giving participants more time to reflect on their peer mentoring experience, plan how they’d apply any learnings to their future engagement, and connect with the wider OPEN community. We were particularly grateful to speakers from the Government Office for Science, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as well as colleagues from across Oxford’s academic divisions.  

Feedback across both cohorts was very positive, with many peer mentors telling us the experience exceeded their expectations and praising both their match and the balance between structure and flexibility that shaped their conversations. Their reflections also gave us a clearer sense of how the scheme can keep evolving.  

Opening the programme to Senior Executive Officers this year, for example, showed just how much those earlier in their careers value the chance to build confidence and cross-sector understanding through peer mentoring. We also heard that a little more guidance at the very beginning would help pairs ease into their conversations. Taking this on board, we’re looking at ways to offer prompts in those first meetings, while keeping the flexibility that mentors consistently tell us they appreciate.

All of this echoed what I saw in that pairing I talked about earlier, and in so many others this year. Once people have the right match and the right support to get started, the value comes from the conversations themselves: the chance to step outside their usual environment, talk something through with someone who sees it differently, and make sense of challenges that would otherwise stay stuck in their heads.  These exchanges often spark new ideas and connections, showing why it is important for OPEN to keep creating spaces where this kind of learning and collaboration can take place.

(This text first appeared in OPEN's 2024-25 Annual Report, launched in January 2026)