Cornell Early-Career Faculty Grant Mentoring Program

The Cornell Early-Career Grant Mentoring Program is a competitive, year-long research grant development program for early-career faculty that is deployed Cornell wide with a focus on faculty from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds.

Applications are solicited annually, each summer. For more information, please contact Josephine Martell (jem522 [at] cornell.edu).

All faculty fellows accepted into the program participate in the following programming, and have access to the following resources:

1. The six-eight week Grant Fellows Workshop, available in the Fall semester, that teaches faculty how to successfully write and approach a federal research grant.
2. A Spring trip to Washington, DC to, where participants meet with program officers at the federal funding agencies, as part of our efforts to help position our faculty with federal funders. During the COVID-19 pandemic this component is being held virtually.
3. The quarterly professional development seminar series that includes topics such as overcoming self-sabotaging behavior, how to position one’s research with the federal agencies, a mock NIH review panel, and overcoming biases.
4. A senior faculty grant reader, who is assigned to each faculty fellow over the course of the year and gives detailed feedback on their grant proposal and science.

Additionally, our Faculty Advisors are available to our early-career cohorts on an ad hoc basis for guidance and support. Many of them participate as speakers in the Grant Fellows Workshop.

• Kathryn Boor, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education; Professor, Food Science and Global Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Avery August, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs; Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine
• Mariana Wolfner, Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Hadas Kress-Gazit, Professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
• Hector Aguilar-Carreno, Co-Director PACE Program; Associate Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine
• Diane Bailey, Geri Gay Professor of Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Nelly Andarawis-Puri, Associate Professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
• José Martinez, Associate Dean for Diversity and Academic Affairs; Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
• Chris Smart, Director, School of Integrative Plant Science; Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Bruce Lewenstein, Professor of Science Communication in the Departments of Science & Technology Studies and Communication, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences