Participate

Participation in authentic research is one of the highest-impact experiences undergraduate students can obtain and is increasingly recognized by employers and admissions committees as a valuable indicator of future success. 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. Because authentic research projects can last years, underclassmen are usually recruited to replace graduating seniors. Those who develop growing interest and talent for research often continue multiple semesters, taking on greater responsibility for research and mentorship of new team members. A majority of undergraduates do not join to prepare for a research career, 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 (or Summer session)
• Attend weekly team meetings
• Submit weekly progress reports
• Complete pre- and post-program evaluations

To join

• Be an undergraduate student (any major or classification)
• 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

This program is designed to expand opportunities to gain administrative experience while providing a mechanism to advanced shared goals. Administrators, faculty, staff, work in collaborative teams to advance a team leader’s administrative project related to strategic research initiatives. Academic and administrative units at department, college, university, and university system levels often face similar challenges when developing, launching, or expanding strategic initiatives. All units are now facing a radically changed landscape that challenges the ability to support faculty and maintain institutional research capacity. This program is designed to expand institutional research capacity through bridging unnecessary barriers separating disciplinary, administrative, and institutional silos and expanding the cadre of faculty prepared to be successful administrators that cultivate mutualistic partnerships to achieve common goals.

Benefits

• Engage in professional development and gain practical experience within a strategic 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 Strategic Research Initiative Collaborator

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 with or without a formal administrative appointment
• 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 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 an undergraduate research 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 undergraduate’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 in research who can provide professional references
• Earn certification as an Aggie Research Corps Leader

Current Research Leadership Programs

• Community and Economic Resilience Research Leadership Program
• Emerging Technologies Research Leadership Program
• Health and Quality of Life Research Leadership Program
• National Security Research Leadership Program
• Space Exploration Research Leadership Program
• Sustainability and Environment Research Leadership Program
• STEM Education Research Leadership Program
• Hazards Research Leadership Program
• Everybody Eats Research and Service Leadership Program

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

This program is designed to expand institutional research capacity by emerging faculty leaders who lead collaborative teams to initiate, structure, and sustain partnerships with the private sector including industry, philanthropic foundations, or nonprofit organizations.

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 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
• Agree to serve as a program contact for faculty in your department and college

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

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, administrators, or staff to advance the Team Leader’s project related to strategic research initiatives. 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 faculty prepared to become successful administrators that cultivate mutualistic partnerships to achieve common goals.

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 Administrative Leadership Program

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 periodic progress reports
• Document the development of an emerging Best Practice to share with the community
• Agree to serve as a program contact

To join program

• Be a faculty member
• Have a general administrative project description
• Plan to mentor a team of faculty that includes at least three other faculty
• Submit the registration form

On April 18, 2025, the National Science Foundation changed 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 proposal text describing undergraduate research teams, as well as full support services of the Aggie Research Corps including recruitment of team members, data collection, scheduling, and evaluation. As a notable bonus, this Broader Impacts solution increases research productivity. All is free of charge for faculty who have had students participate in that Aggie Research Corps, and will not require a budget item on your proposal. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership if you would like support for your NSF grant.

The research team structure transforms undergraduate research from low ROI that cultivates a potential future doctoral student into a high ROI that immediately advances a the objectives of a project. Project teams become very productive with faculty-lead undergraduate teams chosen for the unique assets they bring to the table. Over the course of a year, undergraduates registered for course credit are expected to put in 9 hours/week, and faculty mentors contribute 1.5 hours/week. At nominal wages, this would translate to an untapped value of over $25,000/year. A faculty member leading four project teams would generate two courses worth of scheduled credit hours and with an untapped value of over $100,000/year in value. Contact the Aggie Collaborate leadership if you are interested in developing a partnership that provides students experience working on real-world projects.

As the Aggie Research Corps establishes partner programs at universities across the nation, research leadership programs are expanded to cross institutional boundaries. This provides unique opportunities to sponsor research leadership programs with a national reach.

We actively welcome engagement of Former Students in 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. Please let Aggie Collaborate leadership 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 the Aggie Collaborate has been used successfully by participants in the leadership programs, who have access to programmatic data, to secure extramural grant funding. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership to schedule a meeting to discuss your plans.

The Aggie Research Corps has active partnerships with components of the University System, and has a growing number of partners across the nation. If you are interested in discussion and support to launch a program at your institution, meet experienced Team Leaders and program Directors, and establish cross-institutional research leadership programs, please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership.

The team-based approach of the Aggie Research Corps has been used to successfully structure collaborative projects focused on service instead of research. If you are interested in learning more and working with us to launch a scalable, low-cost service leadership program at your organization to increase service capacity, we welcome the opportunity. This provides opportunities for the leadership Aggie Collaborate leadership to learn how our model works in different contexts and provides our team leaders opportunities to gain experience launching new programs. Please contact Aggie Collaborate leadership 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 research leadership program. We are eager to discuss how this model might be used to scale up a small the impact of a paid internship program at your business at no additional cost. The basic idea is that paid interns could become Team Leaders of a collaborative project teams consisting of undergraduates registered for course credit to learn from engaging in a real-world program. You business benefits from our existing leadership programs to expand leadership training, amplify productivity, and exponentially increase relevant workforce development. Please contact the leadership of Aggie Collaborate to schedule a discussion of piloting a program.