Call for Multi-Institution Project Proposals for FY 2025-2027
Due date: January 03, 2025 for proposal abstracts and February 28, 2025 for full proposals
PacTrans is soliciting research proposals for multi-institution projects (two or more PacTrans universities). Each proposal can be for up to $195,000 of federal funds, with a required 1:1 non-federal match. Proposals must be consistent with our center’s theme of “Developing human-centered and transformative multimodal mobility solutions for an equitable Pacific Northwest.” Within that theme, PacTrans specific research thrusts are listed as below. Each proposal responding to the RFP must address one or more of the first four research thrust areas below, as well as the fifth, cross-cutting thrust, 5. Transformative Solutions.
- Equity and Accessibility: understand major factors that limit access to efficient and affordable transportation options, and design innovative methods and tools that empower equitable mobility and better access to jobs, Medicare, and other economic/social opportunities.
- Multimodal Systems and Connectivity: leverage new technology-based companies, the collective expertise of the consortium, and incentive programs supported by local agencies, to remove barriers for multimodal integration and to ensure a resilient, reliable, and sustainable supply chain for optimal movements of goods and people.
- Safety, Resilience and Reliability: develop approaches that work toward a long-term USDOT goal of vision zero and new strategies for safe/efficient evacuations, reliable travels of people and goods, and for fast and resilient recoveries from major disruptions in both urban and rural contexts, for both passenger and freight movements.
- Human-System Integration: identify the factors that limit or facilitate system interactions with humans and foster infrastructure-vehicle cooperation technologies and research, including infrastructure/vehicle sensing and data collection, cooperative and infrastructure-enabled traffic-vehicle control, and related issues such as cybersecurity (of both vehicles and the infrastructure) and privacy protection.
- Transformative Solutions: a cross-cutting thrust to develop solutions that are flexible and adaptive to anticipate and respond to changing opportunities and challenges in future transportation. Such solutions include new technologies, modeling methods, policies/standards, and best practices, based on well-established engineering methods/principles and leveraging advanced materials and emerging technological trends at the same time.
In addition, on June 14, 2024, PacTrans organized a research workshop, focusing on the mobility-related challenges and potential solutions in the Pacific Northwest. A summary of the identified challenges and suggested solutions can be found here. For this RFP, each proposal must also focus on one or more of the following five priority areas based on the research workshop.
- Human-Centered Design to create transportation systems and mobility solutions that prioritize the needs, experiences, and well-being of all users. This involves engaging with diverse communities to ensure their mobility needs are properly represented, designing infrastructure that is accessible and convenient for everyone, and incorporating feedback to continuously improve the user experience.
- Supporting Infrastructure that refers to the physical, virtual, and financial systems necessary to ensure the effective operation and integration of multimodal transportation networks. This includes developing robust intermodal transfer facilities, ensuring reliable power systems for transportation electrification, creating comprehensive information systems to support mobility options for all users, and securing adequate funding and subsidies to maintain and enhance transportation services.
- Equity Issues to address the fair and just distribution of resources, opportunities, and services across all communities when developing mobility solutions. This involves identifying and mitigating mobility-related barriers that underserved populations face, multimodal system design that ensures equal access by all users, digital equity when applying technologies to develop innovative mobility solutions, and implementing transportation policies that promote inclusivity and reduce disparities related to income, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and disability status.
- Climate Change considerations that involve developing novel mobility strategies and solutions that enhance the resilience and sustainability of transportation systems in the face of rapidly changing environment. This includes designing transportation infrastructure adaptive to climate change that can help minimize the mobility impacts when extreme weather events occur, and prioritizing climate-friendly transportation options to mitigate the long-term impacts of climate change.
- Safety, Privacy, and Security Concerns to ensure safe travels and protect users from personal data breaches or (cyber)security harm. This includes implementing Vision Zero strategies to eliminate traffic fatalities, safeguarding data collection and sharing through advanced technologies (like AI and autonomous vehicles) by deployable privacy protection and cybersecurity techniques, and developing policies that ensure the secure and ethical use of transportation data to protect user privacy and security.
Additional criteria for funding are listed below:
- Proposals should be of regional importance, benefitting more than one state.
- Proposals should clearly demonstrate the national significance of the project. This will help ensure that PacTrans’ research remains competitive at the national level. Projects that duplicate previous research done elsewhere may not be selected to fund.
- Proposals require meaningful contributions from more than one consortium partner institution.
- Proposals must achieve a 1:1 non-federal match. Cash match from sources such as state DOTs, local agencies, corporations, and foundations is preferred.
- Each institution can lead no more than one funded multi-institution research project in each funding cycle. There is no limit on how many proposals may be submitted from an institution as the lead or supporting partner.
- All partners involved in each project must have a meaningful role clearly described in the proposal.
Submission Guidelines
The submission procedure contains two steps: (1) proposal abstract submission by January 03, 2025, and (2) full proposal submission by February 28, 2025. Those who miss the abstract submission deadline are not allowed to submit full proposals. Proposal abstracts will be used for selecting the most promising proposals and for timely recruiting reviewers.
Proposal abstracts need to be uploaded onto the PacTrans website by the abstract deadline using the “Proposal Abstract” link. Similarly, full proposals need to be uploaded by the full proposal deadline, using the “Multi-Institution Proposals Submission” link. The submission links will be provided by PacTrans in early December.
More detailed information about the proposal submission process including templates for the project details, text, budget, schedule, and deliverables can be found on the PacTrans proposal submission website. The main contents of proposal abstracts and full proposals are listed below.
Abstracts
Proposal abstracts should be submitted by the online form or in an Adobe PDF file with the following required information:
- Project title
- Project type (applied research vs advanced research)
- PIs, their affiliations, and contacts
- Research thrust(s) as listed in this RFP.
- Specific research priority area(s) as listed in this RFP
- Possible/likely match funds provider(s)
- Explanation of the regional importance and national significance of the proposal (300 words maximum)
- Proposal abstract (350 words maximum)
Full Proposals
The full proposal should be NO MORE THAN TEN (10) pages (without references, resumes, or match letters) and include the following categories:
- Project Title
- Project Type: USDOT collects statistics on the types of research that PacTrans funds. Most specifically they distinguish between advanced research and applied, or practical research. Your project will not be judged based on its type but please indicate whether your proposal is considered advanced or applied research.
- Collaborators and Affiliations: The project needs to identify the PI, lead organization, and collaborating institution(s) and respective co-PI(s). The study for multi-institution projects needs to include at least one additional consortium partner in a meaningful way for projects up to $195K. Please note that ONLY the five primary consortium universities of PacTrans are qualified partners.
- Relevancy of Institutional Partnerships: A competitive proposal should demonstrate the importance of working with more than one institution to address the project goal. That is, what is the ADDED value/benefit from working with another institution that cannot be done solely within one institution? The proposal should explicitly discuss how researchers from different institutions plan to collaborate and work together to achieve the project goal.
- Research Background and Problem Statement: What problem is being solved and why should anyone care? What are the goals of the project?
- PacTrans Objectives: Discuss how the project is: (a) relevant to the PacTrans thrusts and priority areas (see above); (b) regionally important (benefits to more than one state); (c) nationally significant; and (d) supportive of the US DOT strategic goal of Mobility.
- Approach: General framework for what you plan to do, approach, methodology, etc. This also includes the task list table included in the proposal template.
- Technology Transfer Plan: Outcomes, Outputs, and Impacts: USDOT prioritizes technology transfer, which they break down into three parts: outcomes, outputs, and impacts. (For more on these parts see recent USDOT T2 Primer here: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12262). Please clearly describe all of your intended outcomes and outputs, as well as probable impacts of your work.
- Required Recorded Seminar/Webinar: In the spirit of this new emphasis on technology transfer. PacTrans requires PIs of our funded projects to facilitate, as one of your deliverables, a recorded presentation of your research and results. We highly recommend that this either be an in-person seminar or a webinar with current project partners and/or potential users of your research outcomes. Here please briefly describe how you intend to fulfill this deliverable and list likely in-person and/or virtual invitees to your presentation.
- Amount of UTC Funds Requested and Budget Justification: A maximum of $195,000 is available for each multi-institutional project. IDENTIFY THE AMOUNT to be allocated to each institution, and populate the summary budget table in the proposal template.
- Non-federal Match: Justification for and commitment of the match is required. This can include a formal letter from the state agency, your university, or other non-federal source that shows the interest to commit the match, the amount, and type of match (in-kind or cash). Also, a contact person for the matching source should be identified in the proposal. To minimize burden on external partners, we do not require you to provide match letters with your proposal. Such letters are optional for the proposal, but will be required if and when your project is selected. We do highly encourage you to be in conversations with potential match partners and make those conversations known in this section.
- Similar Work Disclosure: PacTrans needs to ensure that work proposed for our funding is not overly similar to work already funded elsewhere. Please briefly describe any similar work currently funded through other sources that is closely related to the work proposed here and, more specifically, highlight the differences between the two scopes. PacTrans may request a copy of the most closely related proposal or project report for evaluation purposes. You may use the TRID Research in Progress database to identify potential similar projects.
- References: The literature cited in the proposal need to be provided.
- Resumes: Include one-page resumes for the project’s Principal Investigators.
Please note that up to ten pages are allowed for categories 1-12 above.
Per a USDOT requirement, a data management plan for each funded project is required. PacTrans will require selected proposals to submit a data management plan later. No data management plan is needed for the proposal stage.
External Review Process
Abstract
- PacTrans External Advisory Board weighs in on how well they believe each abstract addresses at least one of the first four areas bulleted in the RFP ((1) Transportation Equity and Accessibility; (2) Multimodal Systems and Connectivity; (3) Safety, Resilience and Reliability; (4) Human-System Integration), as well as addressing the fifth, cross-cutting area ((5) Transformative Solutions). They will also assess how the abstract addresses the priority areas that identified via the Research Workshop.
- PacTrans External Advisory Board also provides constructive feedback about each abstract at this stage.
- PacTrans’ Board of Directors similarly weighs in on how well they believe each abstract addresses our UTC focus as it pertains to the five bulleted areas in the RFP, as well as the priority areas that identified via the Research Workshop.
- PacTrans Board of Directors then makes determinations for each abstract as to whether we encourage the PI to proceed to the full proposal round or discourage them from doing so.
- At this point PIs are also provided with the constructive feedback provided by the PacTrans External Advisory Board to consider while drafting full proposals.
Full Proposal
- PacTrans will request three external peer reviewers for each proposal. To view the external peer review form, please click here.
- Decisions will be made by the PacTrans Board of Directors based on those external reviews.
- Reviewer comments MUST BE sufficiently addressed by the PIs of selected projects before funding can be awarded.
Budget Considerations
- Each participating university in a multi-institution project receives their respective awarded amounts directly from the UW and is not required to administer any other funds for the project other than their institutions award.
- Proposal budget must follow the PacTrans budget template.
- A detailed budget is needed and should clearly identify the source of the 1:1 non-federal matching. The budget should include funds for project reporting and travel to the PacTrans regional conference to present results to the Region 10 comsmunity.
Note: A signed letter from the non-federal source (or related documentation) is optional at the proposal stage, but will be required if the proposal is selected for funding.
Due Dates
- RFP released: November 22, 2024
- Submission deadline for the proposal abstracts: January 10, 2025
January 3, 2025 - Initial feedback to abstract proposers: January 17, 2025
- Submission deadline for the full project proposals: February 28, 2025
- Decisions to proposers: March 31, 2025
- Revised proposal with comments properly addressed by bidders for final acceptance: April 14, 2025
- Final decision notification: April 21, 2025
- The anticipated starting date for selected proposals: August 16, 2025
Questions
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Region 10 Associate Director for your respective campus or PacTrans staff:
Dr. Jeff Ban, Associate Director for Research, University of Washington
Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, University of Idaho
Dr. Jennifer Dill, Portland State University
Dr. Haifang Wen, Washington State University
Dr. Osama Abaza, University of Alaska at Anchorage