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Overview of the R&T Partnership Forum

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Overview of the National R&T Partnership Forum


Objectives

This partnership forum seeks to develop a new framework for coordinating highway research and technology (R&T) activities among research sponsors, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders in highway transportation. The framework does not replace existing mechanisms for managing research, providing opportunities for collaboration between researchers and practitioners, or disseminating research findings. Instead, its main intent is to better coordinate investments among highway R&T programs and to do so in a manner that involves the diverse array of stakeholders in highway transportation. More specifically, the framework has four goals as follows:

  1. To make R&T investments more effective and efficient through broadbased stakeholder involvement and greater interaction among different research programs and program sponsors.
  2. To foster a better awareness and appreciation of existing research programs - a sense of ownership that extends beyond the research sponsors.
  3. To stimulate the formation of productive R&T partnerships, which could include jointly funded projects, closely coordinated projects funded by different sponsors, research consortia, and joint public and private initiatives.
  4. To help demonstrate needs/opportunities for research and the potential payoff from research investments, and to thereby help expand the constituencies for highway R&T.


The definition of the framework is in its earliest stages. The framework is incomplete, and its details will probably remain imprecise for some time as it is shaped and reshaped by experience.

Participation

TRB, AASHTO and FHWA have convened the partnership and are encouraging participation by the full transportation community, including research sponsors, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders in highway transportation. The process will operate on the principal that participation will be open to all whenever possible.

Background

Two forum meetings have been held. The first held on December 10, 1998 initiated the process and focussed on FHWA's research programs. The second meeting, held on July 9, 1999, expanded the participation and broadened the scope to other national highway research programs. Participants adopted the partnership concept with its evolving nature and endorsed the basic structure of the partnership. TRB is acting as the "secretariat" for the Forum, appointing working group chairs, convening meetings, and providing staff support.

Structure

A three-tier structure was adopted. The first tier will provide guidance and oversight for the entire coordination framework. The second tier is of five working groups. The third tier consists of groups, already existing, that have coordination charges for slices or subsets of the topic areas covered by the working groups.

Tier #1

The first tier actually has several components. The partnership forum is a continuing mechanism for broad-based stakeholder involvement at a program-wide level. It meets periodically to be briefed by working groups, the RTCC chair, and research program sponsors on the status of the framework and pending issues.

The Research and Technology Coordinating Committee (RTCC), a special committee convened by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council and funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provides continuing guidance to FHWA on highway research and technology opportunities and priorities. It is constituted to provide formal consensus-based guidance to federal agencies and, as related to the partnership forum, will consider information developed by the working groups in making recommendations to sponsors who ultimately make funding decisions. Membership is drawn from top officials in state DOTs as well as university and private-sector research agencies; highway suppliers, contractors, and consultants; local government officials; highway users; and environmental and highway safety specialists.

Tier #2

The Working Groups are the only new groups and are the Forum's operating units. The five Working Groups are:
    1. Safety
    2. Infrastructure Renewal
    3. Operations and Mobility
    4. Planning and Environment
    5. Policy Analysis and System Monitoring

See appendix for the Working Group chairs and FHWA liaisons.

The Operations and Mobility Working Group is on hold. The Institute of Transportation Engineers is beginning a separate initiative on behalf of FHWA to assess the future of transportation operations. To ensure coordination, TRB will wait to establish the working group until after the ITE steering committee meets. For Planning and Environment, TRB on behalf of FHWA is establishing an Advisory Group for the Surface Transportation Environmental Cooperative Research Program (STECRP). Because the charge to this group is similar to that of a working group, a group will not be established and the STECRP Committee will perform the needed functions.

Each working group will:

    1. Identify the major issues in their area of interest
    2. Review existing research programs, including FHWA, AASHTO/NCHRP, state DOTs, and others being conducted in their area of interest;
    3. Assess the coverage in relation to the current issues, and identify gaps and areas of overlap
    4. Determine priority research areas
    5. Develop marketing information on the benefits to result from research expenditures; and
    6. Facilitate partnerships and coordination to carry out needed research


It is anticipated that the working groups will primarily deal with research theme areas rather than individual projects, e.g., roadside safety rather than barrier design. Basic and applied research will be addressed. The working group findings, including suggestions for new emphasis areas and coordination among programs, will be forwarded to the Research and Technology Coordinating Committee for consideration and further action. The results will also be forwarded to the sponsors for their information (actual recommendations to sponsors will come only from the RTCC). The Working Groups are not funded and participation is open to all.

Schedule

The Working Groups are meeting in the fall and winter to define their scope of interest, develop approaches and start broadening participation. The RTCC meets in the spring and plans a joint meeting with Working Group chairs.
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