Six faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are among the leaders of 17 campus-wide teams selected by Texas A&M University's Advancing Discovery to Market (ADM) Innovation Awards Program to receive $3.4 million in innovation grants during the first stage of the program's second full year of funding.
Grants from ADM support Texas A&M researchers as they translate recent discoveries or innovations into new products for the commercial marketplace. Launched in 2023 through the Division of Research and funded by the Texas A&M Office of the President and The Texas A&M University System Office of the Chancellor, the program has awarded more than $8 million in innovation grants to a total of 39 campus teams to date.
ADM is open to researchers, faculty, staff and students of Texas A&M as well as three state agencies: Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and Texas A&M Transportation Institute. All proposals undergo a three-stage selection process, with the final stage featuring pitch presentations to an external review panel of entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.
“The ADM Innovation Awards are crucial for empowering Texas A&M researchers to transform bold ideas into impactful solutions,” said Dr. Jack G. Baldauf, vice president for research and a professor in the Department of Oceanography. “With this funding, the university and the system enable our research community to address pressing challenges, contribute to meaningful advancements and take their innovations and discoveries to the marketplace as useful products.”
The program offers two award levels differentiated on the basis of a discovery’s maturity. Type One awards present $99,000 or less to research projects that have found an innovation but have yet to identify a specific application. Type Two awards of $100,000 to $500,000 provide funding for refining an innovation and advancing it for commercial use.
Texas A&M Arts and Sciences-led teams receiving Type One awards include:
- Lei Fang, Department of Chemistry, “Recovery of lithium and transition metals from produced water sources,” with co-principal investigator Sarbajit Banerjee, Department of Chemistry, $99,000.
- Lawrence Griffing, Department of Biology, “Development of an organic, broad-spectrum pre-emergent herbicide,” with co-principal investigators Bob Whitney and Muthu Bagavathiannan, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, $98,000.
- David Powers, Department of Chemistry, “Targeting aspartate and glutamate residues with n-pyridinium and n-aryl aziridine small molecules,” $98,862.
One additional Texas A&M Arts and Sciences-led team received a Type Two award:
- Richard Gomer, Department of Biology, “Advancing potential therapeutics for fibrosing diseases to licensing,” with co-principal investigators Thomas Meek, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and James Smith, Department of Biology, $295,888.
Dr. Henry Fadamiro, associate vice president for research and strategic initiatives, serves as ADM lead and administrator. In addition to Baldauf, the program’s management team includes Dr. Joe Elabd, vice chancellor for research, The Texas A&M University System; Pete O’Neil, chief innovation officer, Texas A&M Innovation; and Blake Petty, executive director, McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, Mays Business School.
Learn more about Advancing Discovery to Market and related application guidelines.
This story is adapted from the original published by Texas A&M Today.