R-GUILD — The latest step of Benzyme Ventures in the journey of empowering the next generation of bio enthusiasts.
“How can I get a Ph.D.?”
“What would happen after getting a degree or a Ph.D.?”
“Can I be a researcher who unravels deep secrets, concepts in the bioscience world?”
Do you always wonder and trouble yourself with these problems? Then you may be someone who loves and is curious about the world of bioscience. Also, you may be eager to discover the depths of bioscience, investigate new concepts, and play a part in changing the world.
But, having no idea about how to achieve these dreams, having no one to look for guidance may discourage you. So, what if there is really someone out there to show you the way to achieve your dreams? R-GUILD would be the one you have waited for.
With the initiation of R-GUILD, bioscience undergraduates, who are eager to step up and discover the depths of the bioscience world, would have a chance to get mentored by a number of resource personnels specialized in different bioscience sectors. This is a great opportunity for bioscience undergraduates to know about the hidden tricks and tips that may help you thrive towards your dreams.
R-GUILD is a mentoring program initiated by Benzyme Ventures to create a single interactive platform for both bioscience undergraduates and researchers to share knowledge, experiences, and advice in order to give these undergraduates a head start at achieving their dreams.
Benzyme Ventures is a thriving community of bio enthusiasts, students, and scientists who have started on a daring journey to make a change in the bioeconomy of Sri Lanka through innovations, entrepreneurship, and research. With a vision of “empowering the next generation bioscientists and biotech entrepreneurs”, this initiative is based on three pillars:
- Scientific Communication
- Community and capacity building
- Research and development through collaboration
They have been successfully conducting a number of programs under the pillar of ‘Scientific Communication’ including “Biopieces”, a talk show series that mainly targets bio enthusiastic undergraduates and school leavers.
As of now, Benzyme Ventures is ready to have their next biggest outbreak under the pillar of ‘Community and capacity building’ by launching their latest project. This project is named “R-GUILD” reflecting its main goal of building a guild of researchers through networking and collaboration.
Under this project, they are expecting to support the bioscience undergraduates to explore their research interests and be educated about both local and foreign job opportunities in academic and research fields by offering mentoring sessions and developing the necessary skills. They have designed their logo reflecting their true purpose of “navigation towards your dream of being a researcher”.
Benzyme Ventures has decided on initiating such a project to help out and motivate the undergraduates who wish to do wonders in the bioscience field but lack proper guidance while building a community of aspiring researchers in Sri Lankan Universities. This project is going to be conducted with the long-term goals of increasing the research output of Sri Lanka by the next five years while building a community of researchers outside of the country to support the future biotech industry ecosystem in Sri Lanka.
To be more productive and to deliver a high-quality program, they have surveyed on problems, challenges, and expectations of bioscience undergraduates targeting universities all around the country before initiating this program. Among the undergraduates who participated in this survey, several students have been selected for the R-GUILD mentoring program. Being mentees, they have a chance to participate in 8 webinar sessions as in:
General information sessions (3)
- What is Ph.D.?
- How to do a literature review and write a thesis? How to present at a conference?
- What is beyond Ph.D.
Subject Specific Sessions (5)
- Bioinformatics
- Biomedical Science
- Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
- Plant Science and Ecology
- Immunology
In addition, they would have a chance to have one-to-one mentoring sessions with two of the mentors as per their request. R-GUILD is also planning to conduct follow-up sessions after conducting a program to monitor the progress of each mentee and advances in their research careers.
With such a captivating program, R-GUILD is going to be one of the rare opportunities open for bioscience undergraduates in Sri Lanka who dream of being a researcher.
R-GUILD IS NOW READY TO BE YOUR MAP TO RESEARCH!!
Hansini Abeysinghe
Graduate student, University of Sri Jayawardenepura
