About FUERTE
Mission Statement
Why NIH FIRST
The NIH Common Fund’s Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program was developed to promote the growth and sustainability of cultures of inclusive excellence in the biomedical research community. “Inclusive excellence” refers to cultures that establish and nurture scientific environments that cultivate and benefit from a full range of talent. NIH FIRST is committed to improve the quality of the training environment, to balance and broaden the perspective in setting research priorities, and to positively impact scientific discovery. To accomplish this, NIH FIRST supports the recruitment of diverse scholars committed to national research and health goals.
Why FUERTE
FUERTE (Faculty Unified towards Excellence in Transformational Engagement), strong in Spanish, is an evidence-based, comprehensive, and inclusion-focused faculty developament and research training program designed for diverse, early stage investigators. The FUERTE Faculty Development Model is designed to provide a comprehensive foundation in research training, professional and personal development, team-based mentorship, and community-academic partnership building. FUERTE will support a 11-member cohort to accelerate their research success and ability to conduct impactful science to eliminate health disparities, especially among Latinx communities.
Why this funding
The NIH has established and funded the FIRST initiative to eliminate barriers to achieving research independence among FIRST cohort faculty hires. To this effect, SDSU received $15 million to bring FUERTE to fruition and comprehensively support the success and wellbeing of our Cohort faculty.