• Home
  • UTC Project Solicitation

UTC Project Solicitation

To submit a 2-3 sentence project statement for initial proposal screening by Monday, April 12, please send an email to: Center Director Michael Meyer, by clicking here.

Guidelines and timelines for 2010

The Georgia Transportation Institute/University Transportation Center (GTI/UTC) is soliciting research proposals from UTC member institutions for the second year's funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The GTI/UTC was established under a USDOT research centers grant with a goal of producing research results aimed at national transportation issues. The GTI/UTC's strategic objectives are:

  • Conduct multi-disciplinary research on topics relating to the relationships among economic development, system productivity and finance.
  • Disseminate research results and other products of the UTC to the transportation community.
  • Promote transportation education and professional development on topics relating to economic development, transportation system productivity and finance.
  • Establish a central point of contact (e.g., through a web site or list serve) for materials relating to investment in the national transportation system.
  • Promote diversity in the workforce through active recruitment of women and minority students into degree programs.
  • Act as a national resource for the debates and discussions that focus on the evolving national transportation program.
We are soliciting research proposals for the second year's funding from the USDOT (the first year's funding was allocated based on a research workshop conducted with the Georgia Department of Transportation two years ago). The following criteria will be used to select winning proposals.
  • A proposed project MUST relate to one or more of the three topics for the Center, that is, transportation and economic development, transportation system productivity and transportation finance (the more traditional engineering research projects will not be supported with these funds). The proposed project topic should be related to issues of national importance.
  • A proposed project MUST have a 1:1 match. This is a requirement of the Centers program. The intent of the federal funding is to generate state and local funding for research, thus priority will be given to those projects that have real dollars as a match (rather than in-kind contributions). The Georgia Department of Transportation has provided some funding to match projects that it finds appropriate to its mission (however, you do not have to have GDOT matching; you could have matching dollars from some other non-federal source, for example, MARTA, the Georgia Ports Authority, or a Foundation). In this case, GDOT funds would not be used to match the UTC funds for such the proposal.
For those projects seeking GDOT matching, a workshop will be held on April 7 at 1:00 at GDOT headquarters to provide opportunities for researchers and GDOT officials to exchange ideas on prospective research projects.
  • Preference will be given to those proposals that have more than one discipline involved in a collaborative way. This could also include collaborative efforts between universities. The process for proposal development is discussed below.
  • A project budget should not be more than $250,000; only in special circumstances will a project be selected for more than this amount (that is, the researcher would have to make a very strong and convincing argument for a larger budget).
As noted above, the Georgia DOT has provided some funds to GTI/UTC to match projects that it deems appropriate to its mission. The research workshop on April 7 will be designed to provide opportunities for researchers to interact with GDOT officials to determine the level of interest in potential topics. Please do not contact GDOT officials prior to this meeting; we do not want to inundate GDOT with requests for meetings to discuss research interests.

In addition to UTC approval, potential GDOT-matched projects must be approved through the GDOT research administrative structure. Therefore, we envision the following schedule:

April 7: Research workshop

April 12: Potential research topics (simple two or three sentence summary) submitted by proposers through the UTC website to the GTI/UTC Director for consideration and possible submittal to GDOT

April 19: Research topics considered within the scope of the UTC objectives and identified by GDOT as candidates for matching funds will be selected and researchers notified that a needs statement should be prepared. For instructions in developing needs statements see the "Working with GDOT" section of our website. Please be aware that a request for a needs statement does not guarantee funding.

May 3: Needs statements due to GTI/UTC Director who will then submit them to GDOT

Mid-May: GDOT Research Technical Advisory Groups evaluate and select needs statements for funding and requests full proposals for approval by GDOT Office Heads

June 7: Full proposals due to GTI/UTC Director who will then submit them to GDOT

Mid-June: Approval of full proposals by GDOT

It is expected that approved research projects will have a budget in place for the start of the fall semester.

For projects that have other-than-GDOT sources for the matching funds, proposals in the form of a needs statement are due to the GTI/UTC Director by April 19.

For questions, contact Dr. Michael Meyer, 404-385-2246.