Participate

Unlike the traditional 1-on-1 research apprenticeship, Aggie Research Corps members perform research in collaborative teams led by an experienced graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, research scientist, or faculty member. Team Leaders benefit from recruiting members with complementary talents, skills, backgrounds, and interests. Neophytes who develop growing interest and talent for research often continue multiple semesters, taking on greater responsibility for research and mentorship of new team members. Because research projects can last years, new team members are recruited to replace those who move on. Not all team members share the same long term goals, but instead join to work on a part of the project to achieve their own long-term personal, learning, or professional goals.

Benefits

• Gain valuable research experience in a multidisciplinary team
• Develop opportunities to produce publishable research
• Network with practicing scholars and secure professional references
• Earn certification as a member of the Aggie Research Corps

To earn certification

• Participate for at least one semester
• Attend weekly team meetings
• Complete intake/exit surveys and submit weekly progress reports.
• Document the development of new competencies and provide structured feedback for improving the program

To join

• Browse the project list for available opportunities, select projects that interest you, and contact the Team Leaders
• Meet with Team Leaders to determine if there is a match
• Fill out the short registration form emailed to you after you are selected by a Team Leader

This program is designed to expand opportunities for faculty and staff to gain critical experience while working in a collaborative team to advance an administrative project. Academic and administrative units at department, college, university, and system levels often share related goals and face similar challenges when developing, launching, or expanding strategic initiatives. However recent disruptions have particularly strained the ability to dynamically respond to maintain research capacity. In the short term, this program immediately expands institutional research capacity by overcoming barriers separating disciplinary, administrative, and institutional silos to address urgent unmet needs of strategic research initiatives. In the long term, this program expands the pool of future academic leaders who successfully cultivate mutually-beneficial partnerships to achieve common goals.

Benefits

• Gain practical experience within a strategic research initiatives project team
• Advance goals of your academic or administrative unit by collaborating with faculty and staff of other academic or administrative units
• Network with experienced faculty, staff and administrators
• Develop experience and confidence to lead your own project team
• Earn certification and recognition as a member of the Strategic Research Initiative Corps

To earn certification

• Complete intake/exit surveys and periodic progress reports
• Attend periodic team meetings to develop critical competencies while working collaboratively to advance the project
• Document the development of new competencies and provide structured feedback for improving the program

To join

• Be a faculty or staff
• Browse the project list for available opportunities, select projects that interest you, and contact the Team Leaders
• Meet with Team Leaders to see if there is a match
• Fill out the short registration form emailed to you after selection by a Team Leader

The Aggie Research Leadership Corps is a professional development program for graduate students, postdocs, research staff, and faculty who want to develop their leadership skills while increasing their research productivity. Instead of standard 1-on-1 research apprenticeship, research is performed by a team led by a Team Leader preparing for the next career stage. Research teams are productive because they further the Team Leader’s research by leveraging each team member’s unique assets (talents, skills, knowledge, perspectives, and experiences). Team Leaders meet once a month to identify and develop practices that increase the motivation, competencies, and productivity of their teams.

Benefits

• Gain leadership experience for industry and academic careers
• Increase your research productivity
• Network with leaders who can provide professional references
• Earn certification as an Aggie Research Corps Leader

Current Research Leadership Programs

• Community and Economic Resilience Research Leadership Corps
• Emerging Technologies Research Leadership Corps
• Health and Quality of Life Research Leadership Corps
• National Security Research Leadership Corps
• Space Exploration Research Leadership Corps
• Sustainability and Environment Research Leadership Corps

To earn certification

• Participate for at least two semesters (Fall, Spring, or Summer)
• Conduct weekly meetings with an undergraduate research team
• Attend monthly online Team Leader meetings
• Complete entrance/exit surveys and weekly program reports
• Complete a Leadership Best Practice Report

To join program

• Be a graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, research staff, or faculty member
• Submit a Leadership registration form (If you are not faculty, you must obtain approval from their faculty mentor to lead a team)
• Interview and select three or more team members from undergraduate applicants who contact you

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

This program is designed to expand institutional research capacity by cultivating emerging faculty leaders who initiate, structure, and sustain partnerships with the private sector including industry, philanthropic foundations, or nonprofit organizations. Team Leaders recruit, select, train and lead a collaborative team of faculty and staff to advance the Team Leader’s project. Participants serve as a contact point for colleagues in their departments and colleges.

Benefits

• Gain leadership experience while developing private sector partnerships
• Get support from those with experience leading effective teams and developing private sector partnerships
• Leverage support from Aggie Collaborate for recruiting, facilitating meetings, and accessing linkages to institutional support
• Earn certification as a Private Sector Engagement Corps Leader

To earn certification

• Interview and select at least 3 team members
• Meet periodically with your team to develop their competencies and advance your project objectives
• Engage with other team leaders in periodic Team Leader Meetings
• Complete entrance/exit surveys and periodic progress reports
• Document the development of an emerging Best Practice to share with the community

To join program

• Be a faculty member, research scientist, or research staff
• Have a general project description prepared
• Plan to mentor a team of faculty that includes at least three other faculty
• Submit the registration form

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

This program is designed to expand opportunities to gain leadership experience while providing a mechanism to amplify administrative impact. Participants act as Team Leaders who recruit, select, train and lead a collaborative team of faculty and staff to advance the Team Leader’s project. Academic and administrative units at department, college, university, and university system levels often face similar challenges when developing, launching, or expanding strategic initiatives. However, all units are now facing a radically changed landscape impacting the capacity to support faculty and maintain research capacity. This program is designed to expand existing institutional research capacity through bridging unnecessary barriers separating disciplinary, administrative, and institutional silos and expanding the cadre of future administrators that successfully cultivate collaborative teams.

Benefits

• Gain experience leading a collaborative team while completing your academic administrative project
• Engage with faculty experienced leading effective teams
• Leverage support from Aggie Collaborate for recruiting, facilitating meetings, and accessing linkages to institutional support
• Earn certification as a Strategic Research Initiatives Corps Leader

To earn certification

• Interview and select at least three team members
• Meet periodically with your team to develop their competencies and advance your project objectives
• Engage with other team leaders in periodic Team Leader Meetings
• Complete intake/exit surveys and periodic progress reports
• Document the development of an emerging Leadership Best Practice to share with the community
• Agree to serve as a point of contact for those interested in the program.

To join program

• Be a faculty or staff member
• Have an idea for an administrative project
• Plan to mentor a team of faculty that includes at least three other faculty or staff members
• Submit the registration form

On April 18, 2025, the National Science Foundation reported a significant change to its priorities: “NSF’s broadening participation activities, including activities undertaken in fulfillment of the Broader Impacts criterion, and research on broadening participation, must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere.” The Aggie Research Corps provides a turnkey solution for PIs that includes a well documented Broader Impacts plan including support for recruiting team members, scheduling, collecting data, and evaluation. As a notable bonus, our Broader Impacts plan increases research productivity. participants in that Aggie Research Corps. No budget items for Broader Impacts will be needed on your proposal. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu if you would like support for your NSF grant.

The research team structure transforms undergraduate research from a low ROI activity to cultivate future doctoral students into a high ROI activity to immediately advance the objectives of your research. Project teams become very productive with faculty-lead undergraduate teams when students chosen for the unique assets they bring to the table and work on a faculty-driven research project. Undergraduates registered for course credit are expected to contribute 9 hours/week, and team leaders historically have contributed on 1.5 hours/week on average. At nominal wages, this translates to an untapped value of over $25,000 over the course of two semesters. A faculty member leading four project teams generates two courses worth of SCHs and generates an equivalent value of over $100,000. Contact the Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu if you are interested in engaging the private sector to provide students experience working on real-world projects.

As the Aggie Research Corps establishes partner programs at universities across the nation, our research leadership programs are expanded to cross institutional boundaries. This provides unique opportunities to sponsor research leadership programs with a national reach. Please contact the leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu to learn more about opportunities.

We actively welcome engagement of Former Students with our research team leaders. Team Leaders benefit from advice from those who share a love for our university and have gone on to become successful leaders. Please let Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu know of your willingness to join in Team Leader meetings of any of our leadership programs to share your experience or to serve as an advisor for the program.

The approach and infrastructure of Aggie Collaborate has been used as an innovative backbone to successfully secure extramural grant support. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu to schedule a meeting to discuss your plans to see if our programs are right for your proposal.

The Aggie Research Corps has active partnerships with components of the University System, and has a growing number of university partners across the nation. If you are interested exploring launching a similar program or learning how we can support your planned program, please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu.

The team-based approach of the Aggie Research Corps has been used to successfully structure collaborative projects focused on service as well as research. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you to explore a partnership to launch a scalable, low-cost service leadership program at your organization to increase service capacity. Such a partnership provides opportunities for the leadership of Aggie Collaborate to learn how to adapt our model to different contexts and provides our team leaders invaluable opportunities to gain experience launching new programs. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu to schedule an exploratory meeting.

The ability to rapidly expand operations is limited by the ability to scale workforce development and management structure. Aggie Collaborate simultaneously scales both with collaborative undergraduate project teams led by Team Leaders participating in a leadership program. We are eager to discuss how this model might be used to scale up a small internship program at your business. Briefly, your interns are transformed into Team Leaders of collaborative project teams consisting of undergraduates registered for course credit . Our students benefit from experience working collaboratively on a real world problem. Your business benefits from leveraging our existing leadership programs, amplifying productivity, and exponentially increasing workforce development. Please contact the leadership of Aggie Collaborate at aggiecollaborate@tamu.edu to discuss piloting a program.