The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is rolling out an online tool to match early-career researchers with mentors. The online platform, MyNRMN, asks would-be mentees and mentors to create profiles and connect through direct messages or by joining groups that share their interests. Postdocs, faculty members, staff researchers and administrators can be mentors; mentees can be students and postdocs. The tool is part of the NIH-funded National Research Mentoring Network, which was created in 2014 to improve networking and mentorship opportunities for scientific trainees from diverse backgrounds. More than 2,000 mentees and 1,000 mentors have registered with the programme, says Jamboor K. Vishwanatha, a molecular biologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth who is developing the network. Mentees can connect with multiple mentors who share their research interests, location or ethnicity. The platform can also be used to assess the interactions that correlate with later success in scientific careers. “This will allow the development of a 'science' of mentoring and help us to develop best practices,” says Vishwanatha.