Round 4 of X-Grants Opens December 14

November 12, 2020

Round 4 of the interdisciplinary X-Grants Program, part of the President’s Excellence Fund—a commitment of $100 million over ten years to faculty research—will open Monday, December 14, 2020. The goal of the X-Grants Program is to unlock creative and imaginative ideas addressing important problems in areas that will significantly impact the most important challenges facing global society. During Round 4, up to $7 million will be devoted to a mix of collaborative research projects at smaller scale (up to $325 thousand) and larger scale (up to $1.5 million). Team leads or co-leads must be PI eligible (faculty or faculty-equivalent research positions) at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M at Galveston, Texas A&M at Qatar, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service or the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

Step 1 of the X-Grants process solicits project titles that define and clarify what your project entails. This step is strongly recommended in order to facilitate multidisciplinary engagement between team leaders and potential collaborators. Step 2 will require researchers to create a profile, establish a team and develop and submit a one-pager. After one-pagers have been reviewed, invited teams may add team members and develop and submit their preliminary proposals (Step 3). Once preliminary proposals have been reviewed, invited teams may include additional team members and develop and submit final proposals (Step 4). Part of the final proposal review process will include public presentations after written proposals are submitted. Following this, a review panel will meet to select proposals for funding. 

In Round 4, we would like to especially encourage the engagement of researchers in the humanities and social and behavioral sciences to form teams and submit proposals. These areas have been underrepresented in the pool of submitted proposals and resulting awards in previous rounds. Please note that the largest weight in evaluating proposals is their potential for impact. Impact can take many forms and is not limited to increasing the likelihood of obtaining external funding. 

Funded teams are required to participate in the annual President’s Excellence Fund Symposium.

Listed below is the timeline for Round 4 of the X-Grants Program. Additional information on each step in the process can be found under “How it Works” at https://president.tamu.edu/xgrants, as well as FAQs and Round 1, 2 and 3 project awards. Questions can be sent to xgrants@tamu.edu.