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Aggie Research Corps

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. Instead people join to work on a part of the project to achieve their own long-term personal, learning, or professional goals.

Benefits

• Gain experience working in a multidisciplinary collaborative team
• Develop skills and references for future jobs
• 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 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

To earn certification

• Participate for at least one semester
• Attend weekly team meetings
• Document the development of new competencies and provide structured feedback for improving the program

Proposal Development Corps

Disruptions attending the federal government transition have rapidly fractured the national research infrastructure. Grant Stop Work Orders/Termination Orders, decrease in projected federal research budgets, hesitancy to submit grant proposals, and unfamiliarity with alternative funding sources conspires to threaten research programs, research careers, and a sustained contraction of institutional research capacity. The Proposal Development Corps addresses an acute need to strategically leverage resources such as Research Development Officers and the faculty/staff with relevant proposal development experience. Briefly, those who seek experience developing grant proposals become team members of a collaborative grant proposal team led by an experienced Team Leader who is planning a proposal submission. In exchange for help developing the proposal, team members learn how to develop proposals and potentially expand your research portfolios and gain resources generated from successful proposals. This program formalizes, makes visible, and scales up what are usually informal and isolated mentoring structures. In the process, team members become part of a community dedicated to sharing experience and developing the next generation of investigators with funding.

Benefits

• Engage in professional development and gain experience within a proposal development team
• Gain access to resources generated and expand your research funding portfolio
• Access linkages to institutional resources
• Develop experience and confidence to lead your own proposal team
• Earn certification and recognition as a member of the Proposal Development Corps

To join

• Be a faculty member, research scientist, or research staff
• Browse the project list for available opportunities, select projects that interest you, and contact the Team Leaders
• Fill out the short registration form emailed to you after you are selected by a Team Leader

To earn certification

• Attend periodic team meetings to develop competencies while working collaboratively to advance the project
• Document the development of new competencies and provide structured feedback for improving the program

Academic Administration Corps

This program is designed to expand opportunities for faculty and staff to gain critical experience while working in a collaborative team to advance an important administrative project. Academic and administrative units at department, college, university, and university system levels often pursue related goals and face similar challenges, yet administrators may not have the opportunity to work collaboratively across units. In the short term, this program immediately expands institutional research capacity by overcoming barriers separating disciplinary, administrative, and institutional silos to address urgent unmet administrative needs. 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 working collaboratively on an administrative project
• 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 Academic Administration Corps

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

To earn certification

• 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

Aggie Research Corps Leadership Programs

The various research leadership programs of the Aggie Research Corps provide professional development 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 mentoring, a mentor becomes a Team Leader of a of 3-8 students working collaboratively on a single project that advances the Team Leader’s research. Collaborative teams are productive when Team Leaders leverage each team member’s unique strengths (talents, skills, knowledge, perspectives, and experiences) to advance different parts of the project. Efficiency is increased when Team Leaders meeting with all team members at the same time each week. Larger teams incur a higher return on investment of mentoring time. Teams grow more effective over time as new members are recruited to replace those who move on, leading to a multilevel team in which more experienced members take on more responsibilities for training neophytes. Team Leaders meet once a month to discuss how to influence, motivate, and empower their team members and share emerging practices that increase the competencies and productivity of their team.

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

To join

• Be a graduate student, postdoc, research staff, or faculty
• Browse the list of research leadership programs below to match your interests
• 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 applicants who contact you

To earn certification

• Participate for at least two semesters (Fall, Spring, or Summer)
• Interview and select three or more team members each semester from applicants who contact you
• Conduct weekly meetings with your research team
• Attend monthly online Team Leader meetings
• Complete a Leadership Best Practice Report

List of Research Leadership Programs

• AI for Food Sustainability Systems
• Genetics and Genomics Leadership Program
• Hazards Leadership Program
• Health and Nature Leadership Program
• Neuroscience  Leadership Program
• Program Evaluation Leadership Program
• Race and Ethnicity Leadership Program
• Servingness Leadership Program
• STEM Education Leadership Program

If these specific leadership programs are not the best fit, there are six general research themes to choose from:

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

Proposal Development Corps Leadership Programs

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

Leadership programs of the Proposal Development Corps provide professional development for faculty, research scientists, and postdocs who want to develop their leadership skills while getting help preparing grant proposals. Briefly, those who seek experience developing grant proposals become team members of a collaborative grant proposal team led by an Team Leader who is planning a grant proposal submission. In exchange for their help developing the proposal, team members learn how to develop proposals, and potentially expand their research portfolios and gain resources generated from successful proposals. Team Leaders meet periodically to learn from other experienced leaders how to effectively lead a proposal development team and to gain access to institutional resources. This program formalizes, makes visible, and scales up what are usually informal and isolated mentoring structures. In the process, Team Leaders part of a community dedicated to sharing experience and developing the next generation of successful, funded investigators.

Benefits

• Gain leadership experience while accelerating proposal development
• Get support from those with experience leading effective teams and developing successful proposals for funding
• Leverage support for recruiting, scheduling, leadership training, and linkages to institutional support
• Earn certification as a Proposal Development Corps Leader

To join

• 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
• Browse available leadership programs below and submit the registration form

To earn certification

• Recruit, 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
• Document the development of an emerging Best Practice to share with the community

List of Proposal Development Leadership Programs

• NIH Research Enhancement Award (R15) Leadership Program
• Private Sector Engagement Leadership Program (coming soon)

Academic Administration Corps Leadership Programs

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

Academic and administrative units at department, college, university, and university system levels often pursue related goals and face similar challenges, yet administrators may not have the opportunity to work collaboratively across units. Furthermore, despite the chronic shortage of people prepared to become successful administrative leaders, formal opportunities to gain experience leading collaborative teams are limited.  The Academic Administration Corps was designed to dynamically address the chronic need to expand administrative capacity with sustainable and scalable Administrative Leadership Programs. These leadership programs provide professional development for faculty and staff who want to develop their leadership skills while gaining experience leading a collaborative team advancing an academic administration project. Participants act as Team Leaders who recruit, select, train and lead a collaborative team of 3-8 faculty and staff. Projects benefit from leveraging the unique strengths of team members (talents, skills, knowledge, perspectives, and experiences) and positions (with difference academic or administrative units) to advance different parts of the project. Team Leaders not only prepare themselves for future leadership positions in academic administration, they play a critical role in preparing the next generation of leaders.

Benefits

• Gain experience leading a collaborative team while advancing project
• Establish working relationships with administrators in other units
• Engage with those experienced leading effective teams
• Earn certification as an Academic Administrative Corps Leader

To join

• Be a faculty or staff member
• Identify an appropriate Academic Administration Leadership Program below
• Identify an administrative project
• Plan to mentor a team that includes at least three other faculty or staff members
• Browse available leadership programs below and submit the the registration form

To earn certification

• Agree to serve as a point of contact for those interested in the program
• 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
• Document the development of an emerging Leadership Best Practice to share with the community

List of Proposal Development Leadership Programs

• Strategic Research Initiatives Leadership Program

Aggie Research Corps Director Program

Each research leadership program has a designated Director (faculty member or postdoctoral scholar) who facilitates Team Leader meetings and cultivates an effective community of practice. Directors also periodically meet with other Directors to share emerging practices and help forge policies to adapt, grow, and propagate Aggie Collaborate programs. Because Directors leverage the extensive Aggie Collaborate infrastructure, the time commitment is approximately four hours per month. Although Directors primarily learn from Team Leaders, Directors nonetheless must have relevant experience to facilitate discussions. Aggie Collaborate is based on experiential learning, collaboration, and mutualism. Prospective Directors therefore must have had previous experience leading a team whose members worked collaboratively (not independently) and were primarily motivated by achieving their own goals (not by pay). Furthermore, Directors recruit new Team Leaders by sharing how they personally benefited from leading a team and discourage participation of anyone who cannot identify a personal benefit. Directors lead by example and advocate for mutualism to ensure that all Aggie Collaborate participants benefit. Accordingly, prospective Directors must be able to articulate the personal benefits of becoming a Director.

Benefits

• Gain experience directing a research leadership program to advance a career in industry or academia
• Develop professional portfolio that includes directly impacting institutional research capacity
• Earn certification as an Aggie Research Corps Director

To join

• Be a faculty member or postdoctoral scholar
• Have experience leading a collaborative research team
• Identify a new disciplinary category that has the potential to support at least six team leaders
• Submit a Director Registration Form with a name for the new leadership program, a program description, and a short biography to post online

To earn certification

• Participate for at least two semesters (Fall, Spring, or Summer)
• Hold periodic Team Leader meetings
• Ensure recruitment of at least six team leaders
• Meet in periodic meetings with other Directors to discuss emerging procedures of your leadership program and policies for Aggie Collaborate to grow, adapt, and propagate
• Engage in at least one presentation at a university or professional organization interested in instituting a similar program

Proposal Development Corps Director Program

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

Each proposal development  leadership program has a designated Director who facilitates Team Leader meetings and cultivates an effective community of practice. Directors also periodically meet with other Directors to share emerging practices and help forge policies to adapt, grow, and propagate Aggie Collaborate programs. Because Directors leverage the extensive Aggie Collaborate infrastructure, the time commitment is approximately four hours per month. Although Directors primarily learn from Team Leaders, Directors nonetheless must have relevant experience to facilitate discussions. Aggie Collaborate is based on experiential learning, collaboration, and mutualism. Prospective Directors therefore must have had previous experience leading a team whose members worked collaboratively (not independently) and were primarily motivated by achieving their own goals (not by pay). Furthermore, Directors recruit new Team Leaders by sharing how they personally benefited from leading a team and discourage participation of anyone who cannot identify a personal benefit. Directors lead by example and advocate for mutualism to ensure that all Aggie Collaborate participants benefit. Accordingly, prospective Directors must be able to articulate the personal benefits of becoming a Director.  For those who lack relevant team leadership experience, there is an opportunity to act as co-Director while working as a Team Leader of a project to fund your new leadership program. 

Benefits

• Gain experience to advance career as a research development officer (RDO) or administrator in a division of research
• Develop professional portfolio that includes directly impacting institutional research capacity
• Network across academic and administrative units
• Earn certification as a Proposal Development Leader

To join

• Be a faculty member
• Have experience leading a collaborative proposal development team
• Identify a new proposal development category that has the potential to support at least six team leaders
• Submit a Director Registration Form with a name for the new leadership program, program description, and short biography with relevant experience to post online

To earn certification

• Participate for at least two semesters (Fall, Spring, or Summer)
• Hold periodic Team Leader meetings
• Ensure recruitment of at least six Team Leaders
• Meet in periodic meetings with other Directors to discuss emerging procedures of your leadership program and policies for Aggie Collaborate to grow, adapt, and propagate
• Engage in at least one presentation at a university or professional organization interested in instituting a similar program

Academic Administration Corps Director Program

Director: Chris Quick (cquick@tamu.edu)

Each academic administration  leadership program has a designated Director who facilitates Team Leader meetings and cultivates an effective community of practice. Directors also periodically meet with other Directors to share emerging practices and help forge policies to adapt, grow, and propagate Aggie Collaborate programs. Because Directors leverage the extensive Aggie Collaborate infrastructure, the time commitment is approximately four hours per month. Although Directors primarily learn from Team Leaders, Directors nonetheless must have relevant experience to facilitate discussions. Aggie Collaborate is based on experiential learning, collaboration, and mutualism. Prospective Directors therefore must have had previous experience leading a team whose members worked collaboratively (not independently) and were primarily motivated by achieving their own goals (not by pay). Furthermore, Directors recruit new Team Leaders by sharing how they personally benefited from leading a team and discourage participation of anyone who cannot identify a personal benefit. Directors lead by example and advocate for mutualism to ensure that all Aggie Collaborate participants benefit. Accordingly, prospective Directors must be able to articulate the personal benefits of becoming a Director.  For those who lack relevant team leadership experience, there is an opportunity to act as co-Director while you lead your own team as a Team Leader.

Benefits

• Gain experience to advance career as an academic administrator
• Expand administration capacity
• Network across academic and administrative units
• Earn certification as an Academic Administration Corps Director

To join

• Be a faculty member
• Have experience leading a collaborative administrative team
• Identify a new academic administration category that has the potential to support at least six team leaders
• Submit a Director Registration Form with a name for the new leadership program, program description, and short biography with relevant experience to post online

To earn certification

• Participate for at least two semesters (Fall, Spring, or Summer)
• Hold periodic Team Leader meetings
• Ensure recruitment of at least six Team Leaders
• Meet in periodic meetings with other Directors to discuss emerging procedures of your leadership program and policies for Aggie Collaborate to grow, adapt, and propagate
• Engage in at least one presentation at a university or professional organization interested in instituting a similar program

Advising Aggie Research Corps team leaders

We actively welcome engagement of Former Students with our leadership programs. Team Leaders benefit from advice from those who share a love for our university and have gone on to become successful leaders outside of it.

Supporting Aggie Research Corps research leadership programs

The Aggie Collaborate model is being adopted by other universities, and partnerships are being established so that its leadership programs have shared participation. This provides unique opportunities for institutions of higher education, professional societies, and foundations to support research leadership programs with a national reach.

Harnessing untapped potential of Aggie Research Corps teams

The Aggie Research Corps harvests the untapped potential of faculty-led undergraduate project teams to produce results. Unlike typical undergraduate research programs in which undergraduates work independently on projects, Aggie Research Corps project teams become very productive when undergraduate students are chosen for the unique assets they bring to the table to solve real-world problems collaboratively. Undergraduates registered for course credit are expected to contribute 9 hours/week. Faculty team leaders contribute 1.5 hours/week on average. Over the course of a two semesters, this translates to a total contribution of 1,400 hours and an untapped value of $25,000 at nominal wages. An expert faculty member leading four project teams generates an equivalent untapped value of over $100,000. This value can be harnessed by private sector partnerships.

Harnessing Proposal Development Corps to support training grants and NSF “Broader Impacts”

The Proposal Development Corps provides a proposal development community and turnkey solution for training grants and NSF “Broader Impacts” plans. 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 Proposal Development Corps has access to a turnkey solution for launching and/or leveraging existing a research training programs that includes refined text of a plan, as well as infrastructure for recruiting participants, scheduling, collecting data, and evaluation. When participating in shared research leadership programs of the Aggie Research Corps, there is no cost that must be budgeted for your proposal.

Support the Academic Administration Corps to launch private sector team-based internship programs

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. This provides a new paradigm to scale up small internship programs in the private sector. Briefly, interns are transformed into Team Leaders of collaborative project teams consisting of undergraduates registered for course credit. Students benefit from experience working collaboratively on a real world problem. Private sector partners benefit from leveraging existing leadership programs, amplifying productivity, and exponentially increasing workforce development.

Harness the Academic Administration Corps to launch new programs to launch higher-education programs that increase research capacity

Members of the Academic Administration Corps participate in collaborative teams that support strategic initiatives that cross barriers separating administrative units in different departments, colleges, and even universities. The leadership program is designed specifically to support partnerships with universities of the Texas A&M University System, as well as public universities across Texas and the nation. The primary focus is on increasing institutional research capacity by propagating the Aggie Collaborate model.