2026 Multi RFP – Proposal Submission

Your 2026 Multi RFP Proposal should be submitted by the online form and in an Adobe PDF or Word file by March 13, 2026 with the following required information:

The full proposal should be NO MORE THAN TEN (10) pages (without references, resumes, or match letters) and include the following categories:

1. Project Title:
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Research Background and Problem Statement: What problem is being solved and why should anyone care? What are the goals of the project?
6. 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.
7. Approach: General framework for what you plan to do, approach, methodology, etc. This also includes the task list table included in the proposal template.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. References: The literature cited in the proposal need to be provided.
14. 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.