Fostering Belonging in the Research Lab: Strategies for Mentors

Building a strong sense of community in the research lab enables its members to collaborate effectively, persevere through difficult moments like failed experiments or feelings of isolation, and develop their identity as STEM researchers (Committee on Effective Mentoring in STEMM et al., 2019; Malone & Barabino, 2009; Suiter et al., 2024). Creating “positive micro-climates” (Suiter et al., 2024) within labs – spaces where individuals feel they belong and can do their best work – requires more than scientific guidance. It involves modeling inclusive behavior, holding regular check-ins, and setting clear expectations (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019; Tenenbaum et al., 2001). 

This resource offers strategies to help mentors create a supportive lab culture where all mentees can learn and thrive.

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2025). Fostering Belonging in the Research Lab: Strategies for Mentors. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/belonging-in-the-lab

Clarify the values and norms of your lab

In addition to discussing current projects and recent publications, you can help acclimate mentees to working in your lab by communicating the values and norms that shape daily interactions.

Strategies for clarifying the values and norms of your lab include:

Reflect on the lab culture you want to create: What principles should guide how your lab operates and how members interact? For example, you might emphasize:

• “Foster[ing] a lab environment in which everyone can thrive” (the Gadagkar Lab’s Lab Culture)
• “Inquiries that are elevated by personal perspectives” (the Marlin Lab’s Key Principles), or
• “Diversity of people & diversity of ideas” (the Schvartzman Lab’s Core Values).

These kinds of values articulate the overarching aspirations for your lab community. To make values actionable, consider how you want mentees to respond in real-world situations (Meyer, 2024). For instance, if a lab member makes a critical mistake, should they inform you before, while, or after they try to rectify it? Scenarios like this can surface the norms or shared expectations that reflect and reinforce your core values. Clearly articulating and sharing these values and norms help guide your lab’s day-to-day efforts and build the foundation for your desired lab culture.

Communicate your expectations in a lab compact: A lab compact, also known as a lab manual, standard operating procedures, or an onboarding document, is a written document clarifying and communicating the expectations of lab members, including how they can contribute to the lab culture (Langin, 2019). Examples of lab compacts include the Schvartzman lab’s Lab Compact as well as the Association of American Medical Colleges Compact for Graduate Students and Compact for Postdocs. Columbia’s ReaDI program offers consultations for PIs on drafting of standard operating procedures for research group management.

Invite lab members to contribute to the lab compact: Treating the lab compact as a living document that can be updated gives you and the lab the flexibility to ensure it is serving the lab. Periodically engage members in reviewing how well the compact is working, and invite contributions and ideas on how it can be improved. Dedicating time and space for this process fosters a culture of transparency and inclusion as it empowers lab members to take ownership of the lab environment, bringing diverse perspectives of your lab members to shape the culture and norms of the lab.

Create opportunities for connection among lab members

Fostering a culture of belonging in the lab depends on meaningful connections among all lab members. As Lee et al. (2007) note, “Positive and sustaining communities do not just happen; they have to be nurtured.” When lab members trust and understand each other, they are more likely to collaborate effectively, offer support, and navigate challenges together. PIs can help foster this trust by creating regular opportunities for social interaction. These occasions allow lab members to share beyond their career and academic goals, such as hobbies, passion projects, and other interests. These connections strengthen the support that mentees need to thrive and lay the foundation for a collaborative and interdependent lab culture.

Strategies for creating connection among lab members include:

Facilitate conversations beyond the technical: Mentors can guide conversations that help lab members connect as whole people – not just researchers. One approach is to do an “imposter syndrome brainstorming” exercise: invite your lab members to list situations that made them feel like an imposter, then list experiences that fostered their sense of belonging. Use these responses to facilitate a conversation about recognizing imposter syndrome and how lab members can support themselves and each other (Wisdom, 2025). Other ways to spark these conversations include asking each other open-ended questions—from “What’s on your mind today?” (Gotian & Pfund, 2021) to more probing power questions—or engaging in team-building activities like the Value Sort activity (Ruedas-Gracia et al., 2022).

Empower lab members to organize lab social activities and events: Encourage lab members to organize connection opportunities, ranging from short icebreakers at lab meetings to larger events like social hours or celebrations. One example is to organize informal brown bag lunches during which lab members can individually or collectively share about a topic or theme of their choosing. These discussions could be research-adjacent—such as resources on navigating the graduate or postdoc experience at Columbia or tips for participating in for example Nature’s Scientist at Work, Nikon’s Small World photo competition, AAAS/Science Magazine Dance Your Ph.D. Thesis Contest, Pint of Science Festival —or entirely unrelated to research, such as sharing favorite recipes or restaurant recommendations.

Promote collaborative and interdependent work

Encouraging a culture of collaboration promotes the professional growth of mentees while contributing to a more cohesive and productive research environment. Every lab member brings distinct strengths and experiences that enrich shared work — but they may need support in how to contribute and collaborate effectively. Creating opportunities for your mentees to contribute intellectually to and learn from lab members can further establish their identities as researchers – both within your lab and the discipline – and enhances their sense of belonging (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019; Pain, 2024). As a mentor, you can help build a culture of shared learning and interdependence by establishing structures and initiating conversations that support intentional collaboration.

Strategies for promoting collaborative and interdependent work include:

Use Individual Development Plans (IDPs): IDPs are “designed to guide early-career scientists through a confidential, rigorous process of introspection to create a customized career plan” (Austin & Alberts, 2012). It involves working with your mentees to identify their long-term career goal and actionable intervening shorter-term goals based on their academic interests, current strengths, and areas for growth. This process provides mentees with greater clarity and confidence about how they can intellectually contribute to and benefit from collaborations and interdependent work (find an example of a filled out IDP in Vincent et al., 2015). The Columbia University IDP Program offers worksheets for Mentees and PIs and Faculty Advisers to support this process.

Facilitate effective collaborations: Successful collaborations require clear expectations, regular communication, and attention to interpersonal dynamics. Mentors can help lab members bridge differences in expectations and navigate power and social dynamics by facilitating initial conversations as well as regular check-ins to keep collaborations on track. One approach is to work with collaborators to create a collaboration agreement that outlines expectations for roles and responsibilities, communication practices, milestones, how disagreements will be resolved, and if applicable, determining authorship as the collaboration progresses (Bonetta, 2006). While the lab compact mentioned earlier sets the tone and expectations within the lab, collaboration agreements support shared research efforts and set the terms between individuals or groups working together.

Encourage both formal and informal mentoring relationships

Given the diversity of mentees’ goals and experiences, one mentor or lab may not be able to meet all their needs. In addition to sharing relevant support resources available at Columbia (for graduate students or postdocs), encourage your mentees to seek out a network of mentors, both within and beyond your lab. Creating opportunities for lab members to mentor one another can also help foster belonging through a sense of collective ownership and shared investment in the success of the lab community. 

Strategies for encouraging formal and informal modes of mentoring include:

Help mentees build out their mentoring network: Each mentee requires a variety of supports to develop academically and professionally as well as to maintain their well-being. Work with your mentee to identify what their needs might be in each of these areas and to identify multiple people within and outside the lab that they can turn to formally or informally for support. Use a tool like a Mentoring Map to guide this conversation (Wisdom, 2025). An example of a Graduate Student Mentoring Map is available on page 25 of the University of Michigan’s Graduate Student Mentoring Guide.

Set up a Cascading Mentoring model within your lab: A cascading mentoring model is one in which “postdoctoral fellows mentor senior graduate students, senior graduate students mentor junior graduate students, and junior graduate students mentor undergraduates” (Golde et al., 2009). This approach clarifies for junior lab members who they can turn to for support, and allows senior lab members to hone their mentoring skills. As with collaborations, it is helpful to guide lab members in setting clear expectations around roles, responsibilities, and communication to make these relationships successful.

The CTL is here to help!

Want to discuss implementing these or other strategies to foster belonging in your research lab? Email CTLfaculty@columbia.edu to set up a consultation.

References

Austin, J., & Alberts, B. (2012, September 7). Editorial: Planning Career Paths for Ph.D.s. Science Careers. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226552 

Bonetta, L. (Ed.). (2006). Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty (2nd Edition). Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

Golde, C. M., Conklin Bueschel, A., Jones, L., & Walker, G. E. (2009). Advocating Apprenticeship and Intellectual Community: Lessons from the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. In Doctoral Education and the Faculty of the Future. Cornell University Press.

Gotian, R., & Pfund, C. (2021, June 11). Six mentoring tips as we enter year two of COVID. Nature Career Column. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01598-4

Langin, K. (2019, August 19). Why some professors welcome new lab members with clear expectations—In writing. Science Careers. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.caredit.aaz1825

Lee, A., Dennis, C., & Campbell, P. (2007). Nature’s guide for mentors. Nature, 447(7146), Article 7146. https://doi.org/10.1038/447791a

Malone, K. R., & Barabino, G. (2009). Narrations of race in STEM research settings: Identity formation and its discontents. Science Education, 93(3), 485–510. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20307

Meyer, E. (2024). Build a Corporate Culture That Works. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/07/build-a-corporate-culture-that-works

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2019). The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25568

Pain, E. (2024, September 13). How to establish your identity as a scientist. Science Careers. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.zmif8kg

Ruedas-Gracia, N., Botham, C. M., Moore, A. R., & Peña, C. (2022). Ten simple rules for creating a sense of belonging in your research group. PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010688. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010688

Suiter, S., Byars-Winston, A., Sancheznieto, F., Pfund, C., & Sealy, L. (2024). Utilizing mentorship education to promote a culturally responsive research training environment in the biomedical sciences. PLOS ONE, 19(8), e0291221. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291221

Tenenbaum, H. R., Crosby, F. J., & Gliner, M. D. (2001). Mentoring Relationships in Graduate School. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 59(3), 326–341. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1804

Vincent, B.J., Scholes, C., Staller, M.V., Wunderlich, Z., Estrada, J., Park, J., Bragdon, M. D.J., Lopez Rivera, F., Biette, K.M., DePace, A.H. (2015). Yearly Planning Meetings: Individualized Development Plans Aren’t Just More Paperwork. Molecular Cell. 58(5), 718-721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2015.04.025.

Wisdom, M. L. (2025). How to Mentor Anyone in Academia. Princeton University Press.