NCHRP Synthesis Program
NCHRP Project 20-05
Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices
Announcements
NCHRP Announces New FY 2023 Synthesis Study Topics - Seeking Panel Member Nominations
19 May 2022
Panel Nominations Due by June 30, 2022
NCHRP announces 22 new synthesis study topics selected for the FY 2023 program. The new project numbers, titles, and preliminary scopes of work are available online at this link.
NCHRP invites you to nominate yourself or other candidates to serve on the expert panels that oversee the technical content of these studies. Nominees should be knowledgeable about the subject matter and willing to serve on a panel that will meet twice in a 10-month period and review materials developed by the principal investigator. Panels for the new projects will meet virtually in September and October.
Nominations should be submitted online from the TRB website at the MyTRB portal. You will be asked to login to MyTRB. If you do not already have an account, you will be asked to quickly create one using your email and a password.
Before nominating yourself to serve as a panel member, please review our Conflict of Interest policy. Please be advised that if you are selected to serve on a panel and we receive a Letter of Interest for that project that presents a conflict of interest for you, we will reject the Letter of Interest. This also applies to liaisons.
Please submit nominations by June 30, 2022. If you have any questions, please contact Jo Allen Gause at jagause@nas.edu. Contacts to determine an individual’s interest in serving will be made from this office after we have matched available expertise with that required by the nature of the project.
We are grateful for your support of the NCHRP Synthesis Program by providing nominees each year. With the nominees continuing to outnumber the available positions, we have been able to establish panels outstanding in their ability to play a critical role in the accomplishment of successful research. Please know that if your nominee(s) is not selected, there are several factors to be considered when forming well balanced and objective panels. Although expertise is the primary factor, we also attempt a proper balance in terms of organization or agency types (e.g., state departments of transportation, private consulting firms, universities), geographic areas, gender, and ethnic diversity.
Seeking Principal Investigators for New FY 2023 Synthesis Study Topics
19 May 2022
Due by August 26, 2022
NCHRP is looking for consultants to perform as principal investigators for 22 new synthesis topics. To express interest in being a principal investigator for a topic, a two-page Letter of Interest and a resume and CV are required. The Letter of Interest and resume should convey a concise idea of the principal investigator's knowledge and related work experience in the subject area. The deadline for Letters of Interest is August 26, 2022. Panel meetings for the new topics will be held virtually in September and October. During these meetings, scopes of work will be finalized and principal investigators chosen.
Please note the following information for consultants:
- View a sample of our consultant contract. (There is a modified version of this for state entities.)
Please note that TRB does not negotiate the terms of these fixed-price contracts.
- The eleven-month contract period is based on the following milestones:
a. TRB Notice to Proceed.
b. Detailed Work Plan, Report Outline, and Survey Questionnaire - Due 1 month after Notice to Proceed.
c. Report First Draft- Due 7 months after TRB Notice to Proceed.
d. Report Second Draft- Due 9 months after Notice to Proceed.
e. Report Final Draft- Due 11 months after Notice to Proceed.
- The principal investigator will be participate in a conference call with panel members at the start of the project and a meeting with the panel to review the first draft report. NCHRP pays for the principal investigator’s travel cost.
- New This Year: Consultants will be paid $55,000 on a fixed-price basis.
- To propose, please send a single PDF containing a two-page Letter of Interest, a resume providing the principal investigator's qualifications, and a statement that you can comply with the terms of our contract. Note: the statement of compliance should be signed by the contracting entity (e.g., university, company, or an individual sole proprietor). This is the only requirement for expression of consultant interest. The PDF file containing consultant Letters of Interest, resumes, and statements of compliance should be submitted by COB on Friday, August 26, 2021.
Please submit Letters of Interest to the Letters of Interest Submission Portal.
For further information on the NCHRP synthesis program and processes, see Information for Principal Investigators Preparing Syntheses.
Background
Highway administrators, engineers, and researchers face problems for which
information already exists, either in documented form or as undocumented experience and practice. This
information may be fragmented, scattered, and unevaluated. As a consequence, full knowledge of what has
been learned about a problem is frequently not brought to bear on its solution. Costly research findings
may go unused, valuable experience may be overlooked, and due consideration may not be given to
recommended practices for solving or alleviating the problem.
There is information on nearly every subject of concern to highway
administrators and engineers. Much of it comes from research and much from the work of practitioners
faced with problems in their day-to-day work. To provide a systematic means for assembling and
evaluating such useful information together and making it available to the entire highway community, the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has through the mechanism of the
National Cooperative Highway Research Program authorized the Transportation Research Board to undertake
a continuing study. This study, NCHRP Project 20-05, "Synthesis of Information Related to Highway
Problems," searches out and synthesizes useful knowledge from all available sources and prepares
concise, documented reports on specific topics.
The NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice series reports on current knowledge
and practice, in a compact format, without the detailed directions usually found in handbooks or design
manuals. Each report in the series provides a compendium of the best knowledge available on those
measures found to be the most successful in resolving specific problems.
Learn more about the NCHRP Synthesis Program.
New NCHRP Synthesis Studies
Current NCHRP Synthesis Studies
Completed NCHRP Synthesis Studies