Faculty Research

The Dr. JP Bramhall Faculty Research Seed Grant provides limited financial support to Huffines Institute Affiliate Faculty for research that contributes to the mission of the Huffines Institute and generates data to support proposals for extramural funding.

Priority is given to projects that:
– Closely align with the Huffines Institute’s mission and goals
– Utilize Huffines Institute-affiliated facilities (see website)
– Initiate collaborations between Huffines Faculty Affiliates from different TAMU academic units
– Involve Huffines Graduate Student Members

Note: If funded, Huffines Graduate Student Members involved in the project may apply for additional Huffines funding through Graduate Student Research Grants and travel awards.

Eligibility: To be eligible, you must be a Huffines Institute Faculty Affiliate (see link). All faculty from Texas A&M institutions & campuses are welcome to apply.

 

 

 

• Grants are limited to $25,000 in direct costs that can be used over 2 years.
• Funds begin September 1, 2026.
• A faculty member may not receive more than one Dr. JP Bramhall Faculty Research Seed Grant within a two-year fiscal period.
• Funding is limited to direct costs associated with conducting research.
• Costs for producing a research report and/or computer equipment and software are not allowable.
• Travel requests must be justified and directly linked to data collection. Requests for travel to professional meetings will not be considered.

Applications will be evaluated on two criteria:
1. Scientific merit
2. Project’s fit with Huffines Institute priorities, mission, and goals

Funded projects must meet the following requirements:

• The application must clearly describe how funding will involve Huffines-associated facilities, Huffines Graduate Student Members, a collaboration between Huffines Faculty Affiliates, and how it will contribute to developing and submitting extramural research grants.
• All publications and presentations resulting from the seed grant must acknowledge Huffines Institute funding.
• A final report is required at the end of the award period. The report must include information on presentations, student involvement, publications, and external grant proposals generated by the seed grant.

Deadline for the next submission is June 18, 2026.

Online Submission: Dr. JP Bramhall Faculty Research Seed Grant Program FY 2026 – 2027 – Fill out form

Grantees will be notified by letter of their application outcome by September 1, 2026.

Email Huffines@tamu.edu for additional information and submission updates.

These guidelines are required for a submission to be considered for review.

Format: Single-spaced with 0.5-inch margins. Arial, font size 11, should be used throughout the grant. Section headers should be bolded.

Submission Sections  (combined into 1 PDF document)

Title Page (first page)

Project Abstract (1 page – 300 word limit)

Project Lay Narrative (separate page – 3 sentences) Describe the relevance of the research to the Huffines Institute mission and priorities that are easily understood by a lay audience.

Specific Aims (1-page)

Research Strategy (6-page limit)

• Significance – Define the proposed research’s positive effect on the knowledge base in this area. As defined by the NIH, this section answers several critical questions. Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? If the project aims are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved?

• Innovation – Describe how your approach is different/novel from past attempts to answer this question. What is/are the new and different ways that this project approaches the fundamental question you are addressing? Are the concepts, approaches, or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions novel to one field of research or novel in a broad sense?”

• Approach – Briefly and concisely describe how the stated purpose will be accomplished. The focus should be on the experimental design. IMPORTANTLY, this section should indicate the status of this protocol with the appropriate compliance committee (e.g., IRB, IACUC, IBC). Given the extended time required for compliance approvals, experiments with active IRB/IACUC approval will be given preference. If your protocol has received approval, please provide a copy of the approval notification (as an appendix, not included in the grant page limit). Suppose your project is still pending approval, and you are awarded a grant. In that case, you cannot expend funds until final approval from the appropriate compliance committee.

Dissemination/funding plan (1 page) – Summarize how you intend to disseminate the results (e.g., presentations, papers to what journals), an itemized timeline for this dissemination, and what external funding mechanisms will be pursued with these results. For example, if you were pursuing NIH/NSF funding, you would want to indicate which program you were applying to (e.g., R03, R21, R01) and the timeline by which you will be applying. Further, it will be helpful if you provide details on what papers and/or external funding proposals resulted from any previous funding you received from the Huffines.

Budget (1 page) – Provide an itemized budget listing proposed expenditures in the following categories: 1) Equipment, 2) Supplies & Expendables, 3) Essential Travel for Data Collection, 4) Other.

NIH-style Biosketch (5 pages) – https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/biosketch.htm

References – Please provide a list of references. The format of references is AMA.

Appendix– if needed: IRB or IACUC approval