Program Requirements

TOKENS – Each tenured and tenure-track faculty member at Texas A&M University will be assigned one token.

TRIADS – Tokens must be redeemed in groups of three, forming a Triad worth a total of $30,000. Each Triad must be interdisciplinary and must contain tokens from at least two different colleges. The college where a faculty member is ad-locked will be used as their college affiliation.

T3 FUNDING LEVEL – $3 million will be available to fund up to 100 Triads in each round.

PROJECT – Each investigator in the Triad should not have received funding in the previous round of T3 and should not currently receive or have previously received external funding for the proposed research and scholarship idea. The funds cannot be used for extending existing projects that are externally funded, or for projects with sufficient preliminary results for funding by external agencies (e.g., NIH, NSF).

PROFILES – An initial profile will be posted on the T3 website for every tenured and tenure-track faculty member at Texas A&M. The initial editable profile will include the faculty member’s name, title/rank, department, college, email, and photo. Faculty members will be able to add a short bio, research summary, relevant publications, and searchable keywords. The profile will include an icon that indicates if the faculty member has a token available (i.e., eligible to be part of a funded Triad) or has no token (i.e., token has been used in another Triad).

PROJECT POSTING – An investigator may post one or more project ideas on the T3 website (title of project, description, etc.). The investigator who posts the project is the owner of the project. Eligible investigators can post as many projects as they want, but can add their token to only one project. All previous round projects that were not chosen for funding will be archived and their corresponding Triads will be considered dissolved. However, faculty can unarchive their projects and re-form their previous Triads following the normal process (reposting the project and inviting participants).

Forming a Triad – The project owner may invite two other investigators to join the project and form a Triad via the website. Faculty members interested in participating in a proposed project should contact the project owner for additional discussion. After the Triad is formed, the project owner will submit a budget of proposed use of funds, a description of how investigators will collaborate to accomplish the project, and a complete checklist with compliance questions.

PROJECT FUNDING – A semi-random approach will be used in the selection of Triads for funding. Preference will be given to Triads that include at least one assistant professor. At least 50 percent of the Triads selected will include an assistant professor.

Timeline

Faculty Profiles Open for Editing and Post Project Ideas: October 1, 2020
Editing Faculty Profiles and Project Posting Closes: November 5, 2020 midnight.
Project Leaders Invite Collaborators to Form Triads: November 6, 2020
Invitations to Form Triads Ends: December 11, 2020 midnight.

Funding period – January 15, 2021 start. Budget requests may be for up to two years. Any remaining funds will be returned to the Provost's Office.

Undergraduate research supplements –Each funded Triad may request additional funds in the form of a one-time $2,000 salary supplement for an undergraduate student to work on the Triad project.

Triad funding restrictions – Investigator salaries are not allowable expenses.

No review – There will be no review of the proposed research and scholarship as a condition for redeeming tokens. However, the collaborative arrangements, compliance obligations, and proposed budget will be reviewed for eligibility.

Reporting –The project owners of funded Triads must respond to annual surveys on project outcomes, including extramural funding received, recognition, and broader impacts.

Other –Investigators who violate any of the requirements or principles of the program may have their funding revoked.

Guidelines: The title should not exceed 200 characters. Use an Up Style (capitalize first and last words in the title and all "major" words in between).