Kumenya was founded in 2025 by Dr. Frederick Gregory, after more than 12 years leading federal research programs. It exists for one reason: to help university research offices turn more of their ideas into funded research, and to leave their teams able to keep doing it.
Across his federal career, Dr. Gregory directed $318M+ in federal research funding, plus additional in-kind partner support. At the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, he most recently served as Branch Chief for Humans in Complex Systems, leading a $139.2M extramural portfolio and more than 250 investigators across universities, small businesses, and federal laboratories.
Before that, as Senior Program Director for Neurophysiology of Cognition, he managed an $83.5M neuroscience portfolio and oversaw $118M in DARPA BRAIN Initiative research. He was an early federal funder of foundational research that later enabled Neuralink's formation. As International Research Director for Army Futures Command in London, he built transatlantic research initiatives that drew $29.6M in UK Ministry of Defence co-investment.
He now advises university research leaders, and serves as Board Advisor to the Georgia Southern University Research & Service Foundation on research operations and funding strategy. He holds a PhD in neurobiology from UCLA and a BS in biology from Morehouse College, and is preparing for the PMI Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) exam.
Kumenya carries two meanings across the Bantu language family. In Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, it means to know. In Kikuyu and Swahili, the same root means to peel. In that tradition they are one idea: you can't know what stays hidden, and peeling back the layers is how you come to know.
That's the work. We help you peel back the layers of your own research enterprise until its strengths, and the funding it's missing, are clear enough to act on.
We don't hand you a report and leave. We build the capability inside your research office, alongside your team, until it's yours to run.