Applications for the 2024-2025 cohort are now closed.
FRED Mentoring Program for Grant Funding Success
The Faculty Research and Education Development (FRED) Mentoring Program is designed to promote grant funding success in RESEARCH, EDUCATION OR PROGRAM GRANTS for senior postdocs and junior faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. The grant also serves senior postdocs and junior faculty at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and other institutions with a strong commitment to recruiting students (UNDERGRADUATE OR GRADUATE) from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM.
FRED mentees obtain a mentor who agrees to participate in the program for a year-long mentorship opportunity. Mentors provide grant feedback and much more to contribute to successful grant submission.
FRED II Leadership
Principal Investigators
Blake Riggs, San Francisco State University
Co-Investigators
Renato Aguilera, The University of Texas at El Paso
Latanya Hammonds-Odie, Georgia Gwinnett College
Program Details
Objectives
Mentees:
- Get individualized, extensive, and expert feedback and guidance on your grant proposal.
- Gain valuable advice and guidance from a group of senior scientists.
- Expand your professional network.
- Facilitate collaboration.
- Obtain other professional development including improved chances of promotion, invitations to present seminars and speak at conferences, manuscript publication.
- Receive travel funds to attend CellBio Meeting (up to $1,800).
- Receive travel funds to visit mentor’s institution and give a seminar (up to $1,200).
- Receive travel funds to attend summer workshop (up to $880).
- Potential to receive an additional writing coach.
Nearly all past FRED mentees have submitted formal grant proposals, with over 50% awarded grants (higher than most success rates). The program supports research and education grants.
Mentors:
- Provide guidance and expertise to junior faculty and help retain underrepresented minorities in STEM.
- Expand your professional network.
- Receive travel funds to attend the CellBio Meeting (up to $1,800).
- Receive travel funds to visit mentee’s institution and give a seminar (up to $1,200).
- Receive travel funds to attend summer workshop (up to $880).
- Contribute to broader impacts of the scientific community.
Past mentors overwhelmingly find the program beneficial and a worthwhile use of time and want to mentor another FRED mentee in the future.
Past FRED Recipients
Anita Quintana, FRED 2019 mentee
"The FRED program is an exceptional way for junior faculty and junior investigators to gain professional development and grant writing training. The events sponsored by the FRED program were an integral component of my development and have helped to propel my career forward."
Robert Kao, FRED 2018 mentee
"ASCB FRED provided me with all the essential toolkit and strategies for developing a competitive and funded grant."
Fernando Vonhoff, FRED 2018 mentee
"At the FRED program I felt the support from a whole group of mentors that really cared about human connections and excellent science. It was my first "meta-mentorship" experience"
Urbain Weyemi, FRED 2018 mentee
"The FRED program with the ASCB has significantly reshaped and fostered my young scientific career. Through FRED, I was able to find a great mentor who has been very instrumental in helping transitioning from a postdoctoral to a faculty level"
Leslie Caromile, FRED 2017 mentee
“Participation in the ASCB FRED program provided me the opportunity to work with award winning scientists and mentors to craft impactful NIH and DOD grant applications in the field of prostate cancer tumor cell biology. Both applications were funded! I can truthfully say that the tools and experiences gained from my participation in the FRED program will be beneficial to my scientific career for year to come”
Aníbal Valentín-Acevedo, FRED 2017 mentee
"Participating on the FRED Program gave me the opportunity to receive much needed mentoring and advice, but most importantly, it helped me create professional connections that impacted and will continue to positively impact my career for years to come"
Hadiyah Nicole-Green, FRED 2015 mentee
"It’s one thing to have a grant writing training session but it’s another to face a panel of funded veterans in my field. These were all people who’ve had successful funding careers and they brought me to another level of insight. To have that kind of expertise from people who have sat on panels that decided the fate of so many grants . . . was priceless."
Lalita Shevde-Samant, FRED 2015 mentor
"Everybody should have a mentor at some point in their life"
Nathan Bowen, FRED 2015 mentee
"Coming together face to face with my mentor . . . and with the other mentors, mentees, and the MAC members for a few days of intentional mentoring was a career-affirming experience"
Anita Corbett, FRED 2015 mentor
"Nothing is more critical than dedicated time to discuss attainable goals and plans for the future that is created by the FRED interaction."
Mark Mamula, FRED 2015 mentor
"The FRED program allows new scientist/scholars the opportunity to learn important fundamentals in succeeding in academic research . . . Moreover, the FRED program also cultivates scientific collaborations among junior and senior investigators in ways that may not have otherwise developed"
JONATHAN KELBER, FRED 2014 mentee
"The FRED program helped launch my NIH-funded academic research career and helped pave the way for several other opportunities. Following mentoring through this program, I received an R01-equivalent SC1 award from NIGMS, a Visiting Professorship to work at Harvard Medical School from the ASCB MAC, a 2019/20 US-UK Fulbright-CRUK scholarship to work at the U. of Manchester Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, and an R13 grant to support our CSUN-based CSU-ICM event from the NCI. The opportunities have significantly increased my lab's research and mentoring capacity"
Michelle Martínez Montemayor, FRED 2014 mentee
"The ASCB FRED program helped me secure NIH and private grants, a promotion in rank, participation in NCI R01 and R15 study sections and many significant collaborations. The leadership is very inclusive and supportive of minority scientists, which facilitates the difficult process of fitting in and increases the sense of belonging in the same circles as renowned scientists. As a first FRED cohort participant and grant awardee, the FRED leadership encouraged my participation as a lecturer and mock grant reviewer in subsequent FRED workshops. I have met outstanding fellows and faculty who have also influenced me into becoming a successful scientist. I am very proud to be a FRED mentee and recommend it to all my fellow minority scientists."
FRED Cohorts and Resources
This program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant #MCB-2110604.