Targeted Proposal Teams

Eligibility and Requirements

The TPT program is open to faculty members from Texas A&M University (including Galveston and other branch campuses) and its Texas A&M University System partner research state agencies (i.e., Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas Engineering Experiment Station) who are eligible to act as principal investigators for external funding (i.e., tenured/tenure track faculty and APT faculty with research appointment).

• TPT is an investment to foster collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinary research is defined in the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report as research that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or
  bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or field of research practice. To apply to this program, at least two eligible faculty investigators (i.e., adloc-ed to TAMU, AgriLife Research, or TEES) from different disciplines must collaborate and submit a proposal as a team. Proposals may include additional eligible faculty investigators. External investigators may be listed as collaborators, but funds may not be applied towards the expenses of external collaborators.
• Successful proposals must align with the current/active funding priorities and initiatives of federal funding agencies, state of Texas, or private sponsors. Principal Investigators (PIs) must list specific current/active funding opportunities published by federal funding 2 agencies, state of Texas, or private sponsors as primary and secondary (alternative) extramural targets for their proposal.
• An investigator may be named as Principal Investigator (PI) on only one proposal per TPT category (i.e., an investigator may serve as PI for one Collaborative Seed Grant, one Proposal Planning Grant, and one Grants on the Edge). Submission of multiple proposals in the same category by the same investigator as PI will result in the disqualification of the proposals. However, a PI for one proposal may serve as Co-PI on multiple proposals.
• Current awardees (PIs) of an active TPT grant are not eligible to submit a TPT proposal (as PI) this year.
• TPT funds cannot be used for equipment, international travel, or travel to conventional academic meetings or conferences. The source of TPT funding does not support international travel.
• Awards are subject to the availability of funds and budgetary approvals. Proposals will be reviewed for consistency with the budget requirements and guidelines. As appropriate, proposals selected for funding may be approved for reduced funding.
• Proposals recommended for funding will be reviewed for research compliance requirements (including IRB, IACUC, IBC, and Export Control requirements, as appropriate). Funds will be released only after appropriate compliance requirements have been met.
• No-cost extensions are not permitted. Unspent grant funds will be returned to the TPT program.
• Awardees are expected to:
  • Engage with the VPR Office of Research Development Services (RDS) after notification of the award and submit sponsor feedback to this office.
  • Submit a final report to the TPT program within 60 days of the completion of the award, outlining the outputs, outcomes, and impact of the project. The final report should include specific information about the targeted submission, results of the research, new funding targets identified during the process, efforts underway to obtain external funding, and efforts to generate publications,
  • Submit a competitive proposal seeded by the TPT award to an external funding agency within 12 months of completion of the award.
  • Submit annual progress reports for two years following completion of the TPT award to document progress on the following metrics: publications, extramural grant funding, or new projects stemming from the award. Any abstracts or publications arising from the award must acknowledge TPT funding.