Research
The Texas A&M University system, in 2006, was the first to explicitly state in its policy that technology commercialization was a criterion that could be used for tenure. Passage of this policy was intended to give faculty more academic freedom and strengthen the university's industry partnerships. Texas A&M works with both state and university agencies on various local and international research projects to forge innovations in science and technology that can have commercial applications. This work is concentrated in two primary locations–Research Valley and Research Park. Research Valley, an alliance of educational and business organizations, consists of 11,400 acres (50 km2) with 2,500,000 square feet (232,000 m2) of dedicated research space. An additional 350 acres (1 km2), with 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of research space, is located in Research Park. Among the school's research entities are the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine, the Texas Transportation Institute, the Cyclotron Institute, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, and the Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology. Texas A&M University is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium.
In 2011 with $705 million Texas A&M ranked in the top 20 universities for research expenditures; third behind only MIT and UC Berkeley for universities without medical schools. In 2004, Texas A&M System faculty and research submitted 121 new inventions and established 78 new royalty-bearing licensing agreements; the innovations resulted in income of $8 million. The Texas A&M Technology Licensing Office filed for 88 patents for protection of intellectual property in 2004.
Notable Achievements
Genetics
Spearheaded by the College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M scientists created the first cloned domestic animal, a cat named 'cc', on December 22, 2001. Texas A&M was also the first academic institution to clone each of six different species: cattle, a Boer goat, pigs, a cat, a deer and a horse.
Astronomy
In 2004, Texas A&M joined a consortium of universities to build the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile. Estimated to be the largest optical telescope ever constructed, the facility will have seven mirrors, each with a diameter of 8.4 meters (9.2 yd). This will give the telescope the equivalent of a 24.5 meters (26.8 yd) primary mirror and will be ten times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope. Construction is slated to be complete in 2016.
Nuclear
As part of a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, Texas A&M completed the first conversion of a nuclear research reactor from using highly enriched uranium fuel (70%) to utilizing low-enriched uranium (20%). The eighteen-month project ended on October 13, 2006, after the first ever refueling of the reactor, thus fulfilling a portion of U.S. President George W. Bush’s Global Nuclear Threat Reduction Initiative.