Mentoring Grants
(by invitation only)

Program Overview

The program was started in 2005 when the Foundation initiated a pilot project to support William T. Grant Scholars’ mentoring relationships with junior researchers of color. The grants were made an ongoing part of the Scholars Program in 2007, reflecting the Foundation’s commitment to increasing the number of people of color in research careers while also fostering the Scholars’ professional development as mentors. Building on this effort, in 2018 we expanded eligibility for mentoring grants to include principal investigators of major research grants.

The Foundation’s goals for the program are two-fold. First, we seek to strengthen the mentoring received by junior researchers of color and to position them for professional success. Second, we want to support our grantees in developing a stronger understanding of the career development issues facing their junior colleagues of color and to strengthen their mentoring relationships with them. In the longer term, we hope to increase the number of strong, well-networked researchers of color doing research on the Foundation’s interests and to foster more diverse, equitable, and inclusive academic environments.

Background

The mentoring program is a vital part of the Foundation’s commitment to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the research community. The grants provide direct financial support to junior researchers of color so that they have protected time and training to focus on developing their research skills, expertise, and publication records. Because we know that academic advancement does not occur in a strict meritocracy, the program also supports the development of mentees’ networks and skills navigating academia’s formal and informal academic norms. We also seek to counter the isolation that too many people of color face in the academy.

The Foundation takes mentoring seriously, recognizing it as a critical strategy for supporting the professional success of researchers of color. The program seeks to strengthen the mentoring relationship itself, as well as the fluency, skills, and experiences of faculty that mentor junior researchers of color. Skills in mentoring, like research, are developed over a career and honed with experience. Early-career faculty who are newer to mentoring often seek to build a solid foundation of mentoring skills. More senior faculty may already have ample mentoring experience but seek to further develop their strategies for confronting racism and supporting their junior colleagues of color. Many applicants fall somewhere in between, seeking both to bolster their mentoring skills and to address blind spots in their mentoring as it relates to race and racism in the academy.

The focus on both mentees’ and mentors’ development means that the application requires evidence of the mentee’s potential for a successful research career as well as the mentor’s commitment to reflecting on their own practices, knowledge, and skills when it comes to mentoring people of color. We recommend that applicants begin by identifying mentees’ and mentors’ learning goals. Mentor and mentee should conduct a candid assessment of the current strengths and limitations in the mentee’s research skills (e.g., writing, methods, analyses, developing a research agenda, presenting, etc.) and assets (e.g., prior experiences, professional networks, publication record, etc.) and use that information to identify specific goals for the grant. What are the areas in which mentees need further development to successfully advance to the next stage of their careers?

Mentors should also assess their current strengths and limitations in mentoring researchers of color and identify goals for how they want to improve their mentoring. Mentors should use this information to identify specific activities they will pursue during the grant to improve their mentoring. What are the areas in which mentors need further development to successfully advance to the next stage of their careers? We hope this program helps mentors deeply explore issues of race, privilege, equity, and belonging in the academy and tackle the challenges with courage and sensitivity. Because of the current dearth of faculty of color, many of the mentoring relationships—though not all—are cross-racial. We encourage White mentors to candidly discuss their positionality and prior experiences mentoring across difference, and to explain the ways in which they hope to further advance their mentoring work. We also encourage mentors of color and from other marginalized groups to reflect on the aspects of their own experiences mentoring and being mentored, and to share how they intend to use these reflections to inform their future mentoring work.

Awards cover up to $60,000 for mentoring doctoral students and $110,000 for mentoring postdoctoral fellows (inclusive of a maximum of 7.5 percent in indirect costs).

• Grants will begin on July 1 of the award year and end June 30 two years later.
• All mentors and mentees convene during annual meetings designed to support the mentoring relationships, mentors’ learning, and junior researchers’ development as researchers. Do not budget for travel to these meetings in the application; the Foundation will cover associated expenses.
• Mentors and junior researchers will each submit separate, confidential interim program reports six and twelve months after the initiation of the grant, and final reports at the end of the award period.

• All current William T. Grant Scholars and major research grantees with an active grant at time of application who are up to date on their annual reporting are eligible to apply.
• Junior researchers of color may be Asian or Pacific Islander American, Black or African American, Indigenous, and/or Latinx. Junior researchers may be full-time doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows. At minimum, students must be in their second year of doctoral studies at the onset of the award.
• The Scholar/principal investigator and junior researcher must be housed in the same institution. Exceptions will be considered on a case-by case basis, for example for mentor-mentee pairs with an existing relationship history that will facilitate the grant’s success.
• Eligible Scholars/principal investigators may receive the award only once during a grant.
• Mentors will submit a financial report at the end of the award period.

Mentor

• Mentor demonstrates strong commitment to mentoring junior colleagues of color.
• Mentor demonstrates a record of mentoring junior colleagues, commensurate with their career stage and prior opportunities.
• Mentor has identified compelling goals for improving their mentoring for junior researchers of color. The goals stem from a strong, candid assessment of their current strengths and limitations as a mentor and fit their career stage and prior experience.