Checklist for a Good Federal Transportation Research
Agenda
- Is tied to a vision of the future transportation system, and
deals with the present system to create pathways to the future.
- Has a technology scan component.
- Pays attention to the development of an intermodal transportation
system but does not exclude programs specific to individual modes.
- Includes research in technology, systems, and institutions.
- Recognizes the importance of conducting research in underlying
technologies and concepts that extend across modes and could serve
a variety of applications.
- Is efficient, well managed, and pragmatic with respect to
funding sources.
- Is ideologically robust and thereby able to survive political
change.
- Sets priorities among the research, and includes a portfolio
of short-, mid-, and long-term research.
- Includes an appropriate agenda for education and training.
- Takes advantage of the franchise assets of the federal government,
as well as the potential for private-sector cost sharing.
- Is consistent with private-sector research, as well as with
state and other federal government research programs.
- Supports transportation efficiency and effectiveness in the
United States, as well as enhancing U.S. competitiveness in the
global marketplace.
- Is related to other parts of the innovation cycle through
deployment.
- Is sensitive to "organizational readiness" needed
to deploy research results.
- Sufficiently emphasizes validation and deployment and takes
advantage of stakeholder commitment to the research and its implementation.
Review of the
Federal Transportation R&D Strategic Planning Process
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