Last year we inaugurated the Nature/NESTA awards for creative mentoring in science, co-sponsored by Britain's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. This year we are pleased to announce that Nature will be sponsoring awards for high-achieving mentors in two regions: the United Kingdom, again co-sponsored by NESTA, and, later this year, Australasia.

The UK awards are now open for nominations. The closing date is 19 June.

In each region, two prizes will be awarded: one for a lifetime's achievement in mentoring, and another to an individual in the middle of his or her career. Every nominee has to be nominated by five individuals who between them were mentored over different periods of the mentor's career.

The prizes are intended to celebrate a scientific activity that otherwise tends to be taken for granted. There are many heads of labs whose students have turned into outstanding scientists, but all too often such cases have exemplified survival of the fittest rather than being the product of deliberate nurturing. Nature has chosen to favour the latter approach.

Nomination forms and details of the awards can be found at http://www.nature.com/nature/nestaawards.