Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

In just one day, seven public universities apparently claimed an entire $25 million pot of state money designed to help them become research powerhouses.

The new Texas Research Incentive Program allocates $25 million this year and another $25 million next year for the seven schools, including the University of Texas at Dallas, UT-Arlington and the University of North Texas. Tuesday was the first day campuses could apply for their share of the $25 million.

It's a matching program, and how much campuses receive depends on how much private money they raise.

By the end of the first day, the campuses said they had collected enough matching gifts to put them over the $25 million mark. The donations must be geared toward research and aid a campus's quest to become a so-called "Tier One" university like UT-Austin or Texas A&M.

"It's great. The gun has gone off and the race is on for the next Tier One," said state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, who pushed for the law, along with all seven campus presidents.

Leading the fundraising pack: UT-Dallas, which says it has received $16.8 million in private donations and is eligible for an additional $14.9 million in state research funds.

Also reporting Tuesday:

•University of North Texas: $2.9 million from nine donors, with an eligible state match of $1.7 million.

•UT-Arlington: $1.1 million from several donors, including Carrizo Oil & Gas, Texas Health Research & Education Institute and Texas Instruments. The campus did not disclose the estimated state match.

•University of Houston: $6.3 million from nine donors, with an eligible match of $4.7 million.

•UT-San Antonio: more than $3 million from the Valero Energy Foundation and two other donors, which qualifies for a $2.8 million state match.

•UT-El Paso: $4 million from six or seven donors, with an eligible match of $3 million.

Only Texas Tech University did not release a dollar amount Tuesday.

Under state rules, schools receiving individual donations between $100,000 and $10 million receive a 50 to 100 percent match from the state, depending on the amount. When demand exceeds supply, as it appears to have done, the state will prorate the $25 million in this year's pot, and they'll be first in line for next year's $25 million lump.

It's first-come, first-serve, which is why the campuses scrambled to deposit their gifts Tuesday. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will certify that the donations qualify for the state money.

If there's one benefit to running out of money soon, it's this: "It will enable us to unify, to go back to the Legislature and say look what we did. We need more than $50 million. Let us try to match $100 or $200 million," Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said.

Branch said the $50 million research program is just the start. In November, voters will decide whether to allow the state to tap an estimated $500 million for the seven campuses.

UT-Dallas President David Daniel described the impact of these dollars in a campuswide email Tuesday: "These investments will provide a long-term benefit, not only to the University, but also to our community. They quicken the pace at which we can innovate and work to create the great academic research university Dallas urgently needs."

Here are some of the gifts that North Texas universities posted for state matching funds to pay for research.

$16.8 million, including:

•$7.3 million from an anonymous donor to support research, faculty chairs and graduate student fellowships.

•$4 million from the Communities Foundation of Texas for an endowed chair and research in behavioral and brain science.

•$1.1 million from Texas Instruments for research in semiconductor technology.

•$1 million from an anonymous donor for research support, endowed chairs, and graduate student engineering fellowships.

•$1 million from Nancy B. Hamon to support research in the arts and humanities.

•$1 million from the O'Donnell Foundation to support faculty research in arts and technology.

$2.9 million, including:

•$1.1 million from Don Buchholz for an education endowed chair.

•$537,093 from the Priddy Charitable Trust for graduate fellowships in visual arts and design.

•$500,000 from the Murchison Foundation for graduate fellowships.

$1.1 million from several donors, including:

•Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc.; Texas Health Research & Education Institute; and Texas Instruments.