Pathways to the Doctorate Collaboration Grants

The Graduate and Professional School is accepting grant requests from departments and colleges at Texas A&M University to support mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships with faculty at other institutions in Texas and the United States.  

Proposals must be collaborative with FACULTY and STAFF at one or more institutions, seeking to improve long-term partnerships between Texas A&M and other institutions that create sustainable pipelines for students of diverse experiences and backgrounds to enter graduate programs at Texas A&M AND provide adequate support to those students to ensure retention, timely graduation and career success. This is NOT a recruitment grant. Efforts must be focused on building collaborative relationships with faculty and staff at the partner institution. Grants should focus on activities that will expand the number and reach of pathways to achieve the long-term goal of recruiting, enrolling, and graduating students with diverse experiences and backgrounds in TAMU's doctoral programs.  

Funding is provided from The Texas A&M University System, the Graduate and Professional School, and the Division of Research.

Funding Priorities

• Grant activities must be responsive to organizational and cultural differences of partnering institutions, and utilize evidence-based practices. 
• The grants must be used to support activities that directly impact and advance the relationship between TAMU Department(s), College, or Intercollegiate faculty affiliated with a graduate IDP and partner institution(s). Activities may engage sophomore through master's level students from partner institutions, but should not focus solely on students.  Grants MUST demonstrate relationship building between faculty and staff at the partner institution(s).
• Grants may focus on new collaborations or support an existing pathway collaboration but must demonstrate a mutually beneficial collaboration between faculty and staff.
• Grants may be used to support the initiation of pilot efforts for future scalability or building upon ongoing mutually beneficial collaborative efforts.
• Example activities eligible for funding include but are not limited to recruitment visits; activities that advance mutually beneficial partnerships with Texas A&M University System institutions, Minority Serving Institutions, or institutions with national programs with undergraduate research components such as Dept of Ed McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, NSF LSAMP Program, NIH Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program, etc.; short-term disciplinary or interdisciplinary focused symposium, workshops, or meetings which target prospective doctoral students; and structured summer experiences at Texas A&M University.
• Those who receive collaboration grants will receive priority (but not guaranteed) to the Pathways to Doctorate Fellowship award selection.

Allowable expenses include:

• Travel and related expenses to host meetings and other necessary activities;
• With justification, up to one summer month or one course buyout per year for faculty is allowable; student support up to 50% FTE--funds cannot be used to cover tuition and fees.  It should be very clear how the time will be used to support this collaborative effort to build a sustainable partnership.   
• Funding may not be used as a replacement or substitute for funding for existing activities.

Program Requirements

Proposal submissions should include the following through the InfoReady portal:

• NAME OF PROPOSAL AND PRIMARY CONTACT
• NAME(S) OF TAMU FACULTY MEMBERS, STAFF, AND STUDENTS, AND ROLES (must include the Departmental Graduate Director on the team to ensure the proposal is integrated into the department)
• NAMES OF PARTNER INSTITUTION(S) ENGAGED AND FACULTY MEMBERS, DEPARTMENTS, ROLES – Describe the nature of the expected engagement with the partner institution and prior engagement that is being built upon if a relationship already exists.
• COST SHARING – Describe any cost-sharing that is being provided by the proposing team. Cost sharing is highly encouraged to demonstrate faculty/program/department/college engagement and support of these activities.
• DEPARTMENT HEAD APPROVAL – Indicating support for activities and costs described in the proposal.
• GOC DEAN APPROVAL
• LETTER OF COMMITMENT FROM PARTNER INSTITUTION(S) – Discuss specifics of commitment and engagement while demonstrating continuing conversations between the institutions with mutually beneficial outcomes.
• PROJECT NARRATIVE – Provide a proposal description pitched toward a general audience that describes the proposed activities, the mutual benefits of the collaboration, and ways the activities are responsive to organizational differences. In addition, please include the following subheadings: (10-page single space limit)
  • OUTCOMES STATEMENT – Briefly describe the intended outcomes and impacts and provide a brief description of how you might assess these outcomes, addressing the primary goal: how the grant supports the development of long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with specific faculty and staff at the partner institution(s); how the grant expands the number and reach of pathways to achieve the long-term goal of recruiting and enrolling students with diverse experiences and backgrounds in TAMU's doctoral programs.
  • CONTINUATION PLAN – The proposal addresses a plan for how activities or changes will be sustained beyond the funding period; addresses the ways and means relationships will be sustained
  • PLANNED BUDGET EXPENSES – Allowable expenses include travel support, planning and implementation of collaborative activities, student support for summer experience, consortium development, etc.  If any salary support for faculty or a student position is requested, be sure to provide the associated outcomes relative to the time and effort that is planned.
  • PROPOSAL SUBMISSION – All proposals must be submitted through the InfoReady portal by the deadline with all required items above. 

Terms of the Award

Funding: up to $50,000 for two years

Reporting Requirements

Upon completion of the two-year project, awardees are required to submit a Final Report including financial information for expenditures incurred under this grant no later than 90 days following the project term date. 

The Final Report should address the following:

• Describe accomplishments, findings, or discoveries that may be of interest to decision-makers and the general public
• Identify additional funding that has been received or requested as a result of this grant
• Progress towards accomplishments of proposed outcomes such as:
• Creating pathways that would increase the size of the pool of applicants from underserved populations of students.  
• Evidence of establishing a relationship with Texas A&M University System institutions and other institutions complementing their existing graduate programs. 
• Expanding the number and reach of pathways to achieve the long-term goal of recruiting and enrolling students with diverse experiences and backgrounds in TAMU's doctoral programs.
• Identify any scholarly work (e.g., publications/presentations) that have resulted from this grant
• Report actual budget expenditures

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

To be considered for this grant, an application must be submitted according to the guidelines set forth.  A peer-review panel will evaluate and score each submitted proposal based on the following criteria:

• Proposed activities target developing or expanding partnerships that are relationally focused on creating pathways that show the potential to increase the size of the pool of applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds.
• Description of mutually beneficial collaborations, relationships with specific individuals, and evidence of commitment from specific individuals at the partner institution(s).  Must show that conversations have existed over time with knowledge of the partner institution's strengths and the opportunities for win-win collaborations.
• Demonstrates ability to carry out the program and willingness to attend and engage in meetings related to this program. 
• Shows evidence of a team diverse in thought and background who are willing and able to execute the planned activities successfully.
• Proposed outcomes address collaborative grant goals and the proposal demonstrates the potential impact the grant will have on the Department or College team. 

Program Limitations

• All doctoral programs at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University Galveston are eligible for this program.
• Faculty may lead a proposal, but the proposal must also have the support of the graduate director and the department head, intercollegiate faculty chair, or dean (for college-led programs).  It is expected that teams will include a mixture of faculty, staff, and graduate students including representatives from department/program admissions committees. Teams may include representatives from university offices.     
• Only one award per academic department or graduate IDP at one time is allowed.
• This grant is not intended for general recruitment events (recruitment visits to campus, preview weekend, conference grad fair, REU, etc.) but is instead intended for activities that build sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Program Contacts:

Julie Harlin, Associate Dean, Graduate and Professional School

Access the InfoReady application portal at the link below to complete the application. Applications will only be available during the submission timeline.

InfoReady Application

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