2025 IEP Designee – Texas A&M University

In April, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) approved Texas A&M University’s application to become an Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) designee. Texas A&M is one of 24 land-, sea-, and space-grant universities in the US. Aggies are excited to add the IEP designation to that list.

Applying for the IEP designation came at the perfect time for Texas A&M as the Fall 2024 community engagement study coincided with studies on the university’s student experience, capacity, and research identity. The Office of Community Engagement and the Division of Research spearheaded the IEP application process. A study of Texas A&M’s community and economic engagement efforts included a survey and focus groups with students, faculty, staff, and community members; an in-depth look at community engaged learning courses and community-engaged research; and an examination of outreach and engagement programs.

The study identified three strengths that build Texas A&M’s economic future in partnership with communities around the state.

Academic Engagement Programs

Economic engagement fits Texas A&M’s purpose to develop leaders of character dedicated to serving the greater good. Community engaged learning addresses critical junctions of talent, innovation, and place. For example, Texas Target Communities (TxTC) guides College of Architecture students in building reciprocal relationships with underserved communities to produce land use and master plans through capstone projects. A sustained TxTC partnership with Nolanville, TX, led to Texas A&M and the town piloting autonomous transportation for seniors and a telemedicine program. The Rural Medicine Program partners with rural communities, health systems, and school districts to address rural practitioner shortages by providing rural rotations to medical students. The program expanded to include nursing, veterinary medicine, pharmacy as well as colleges outside the health sciences. Students throughout the university collaborate with industry partners to gain experience solving real world problems. A Spring 2025 business course provided marketing assistance to small businesses, a state agency, and two small towns’ tourism committees. Students in a Fall 2024 engineering course designed lunar lighting modules with NASA and a local small business partner.

Entrepreneurship

The McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, founded in 1999, offers more than 30 programs to support new and prospective entrepreneurs. Among these are 16 programs for current students, nine for former students, three for future students, and five for veterans. Some programs, such as McFerrin Methods, are open to local community members as well. The center has a strong co-curricular focus with many programs held in the evenings and weekends. In 2024, the Provost’s Office initiated an update to the interdisciplinary entrepreneurship program so more students gain access to relevant courses.

Research/Innovation Enterprise

In Fiscal Year 2024, Texas A&M research expenditures topped $2.7 billion. Of $228.2 million in awarded grants, researchers identified 56 projects worth $94.5 million as community engaged. Many of our most prominent research areas support the target industries of the state, Brazos Valley region, and the Texas Metro areas: space exploration; health disparities; national security; and the food-energy-water nexus. Innovation requires moving discoveries from the lab to the public domain. To grow the university’s commercialization success, the Advancing Discovery to Market (ADM) investment program provides researchers, faculty, staff and students with the resources to advance the development or demonstrate the commercial potential of recent discoveries to advance such discoveries to market through commercialization or licensing. Texas A&M awarded 22 research teams more than $4.84 million in 2023 and 2024. Across the 11-university Texas A&M University System, Texas A&M Innovation engages industry and investors to bring research discoveries to the market. The Innovation team led System collaborations with Texas A&M’s home cities of Bryan and College Station and the regional Greater Brazos Partnership to bring private partner Plug and Play’s first aerospace and defense hub to the region.

Texas A&M recently launched its 2040 strategic planning process, informed in part by the community engagement study and IEP application. Growth areas from the university’s IEP application shape the work plans for several offices and interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, the Office for Youth Engagement works with departments across campus to build a stronger youth to career pipeline in Texas by helping K-12 students and families understand and prepare for the array of post-secondary education options. The Office of Community Engagement is responding to feedback calling for enhanced centralized support for engagement by hosting working groups to promote best practices and investing in centralized software to help match partners. A new communication strategy will share stories of community and economic engagement, showcasing Texas A&M’s commitment to its land-grant mission and Aggie core values.

To learn more about Texas A&M’s community engagement, visit www.collaborations.tamu.edu.

Authors:

Rebekka Dudensing, Executive Director of Economic Development