This is a beta test and will be limited to 25 participants. An important goal in any mentoring relationship is helping the mentee become independent, yet defining what an independent mentee knows and can do is often not articulated by the mentor or the mentee. Defining what independence looks like and developing skills to foster independence is important to becoming an effective mentor. Defining independence becomes increasingly complex in the context of team efforts. In this webinar, participants will: 1) define independence, its core elements, and how those elements change over the course of a mentoring relationship; 2) employ various strategies to build mentee confidence, establish trust, and foster independence; and 3) identify the benefits and challenges of fostering independence, including the sometimes conflicting goals of fostering independence and achieving grant-funded research objectives.