Framing Surface Transportation Research for the Nation’s Future (2013) / Chapter Skim
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5 Research Frameworks in Domestic Nontransportation Sectors1
5 Research Frameworks in Domestic Nontransportation Sectors1
Pages 95-112
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From page 95... ...
It then discusses some of their salient features, particularly those that could potentially benefit surface transportation research in the United States. The chapter concludes with a categorization and brief discussions of the lessons learned from these nontransportation sectors.
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From page 96... ...
supports basic and advanced research, whereas U.S. surface transportation research is currently lacking in these areas.
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From page 97... ...
Considerable emphasis is placed on the implementation of research results, and the findings of retrospective peer assessments of program outcomes and impacts are used to inform the ongoing program cycle, as well as future projects. Astronomy and Astrophysics: Decadal Survey National Research Council (NRC)
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From page 98... ...
FIATECH has developed, and continues to maintain, a Capital Projects Technology Roadmap6 that is intended to provide an industrywide research agenda and to guide investments in that research. The roadmap facilitates gap analyses and the identification of research projects with potentially high payoff, some of which may receive FIATECH funding.
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NREL considers a range of research topics, including vehicle systems analysis and testing, advanced propulsion and vehicle efficiency improvements, energy-storage technologies, advanced power electronics, advanced combustion engines, and alternative fuels (Christensen 2011)
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. NIH identifies a broad range of constituents, including the American people, scientists, health care providers (who apply researchers' results)
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. APPROACHES TO RESEARCH FUNCTIONS This section highlights practices in domestic nontransportation sectors that could potentially benefit the country's surface transportation research.
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From page 102... ...
For example, NIH universally employs the tag line "Turning Discovery into Health"; it broadly defines its constituencies to include the American people and advocacy groups; and it funds a full spectrum of research activities, from basic research through clinical research. Research Agenda Setting ARS produces and updates National Program Action Plans on a fiveyear cycle.11 These plans are informed by prior program assessments, ARS's mission, the USDA's strategic plan, presidential and USDA priorities, customers' and other stakeholders' inputs, advisory boards, the 11 http://www.ars.usda.gov/aboutus/docs.htm?
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Given the nature of the field, however, the agenda-setting process did not address implementation. The FIATECH collaborative develops a Capital Projects Technology Roadmap that sets an industrywide agenda based on major challenges facing the construction industry.
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DOT, however, was the Partnership for Exploratory Research on Information Communication Systems for Surface Transportation, which ran from 2001 to 2003 and was supported by $500,000 from each of the two agencies (Nelson 2011)
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Department of Agriculture (USDA) Water Sustainability and Climate USDA and DOE Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction Using Earth System Models National Endowment for the Humanities Documenting Endangered Languages Department of Homeland Security Academic Research Initiative National Air and Space Administration Global Learning and Observations to Benefit (NASA)
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From page 106... ...
Attributes considered but not scored relate to how well the proposed research complements other projects being funded, for example, or whether policy issues such as protection of human subjects; inclusion of women, minorities, and children; humane treatment of vertebrate animals; and prevention of possible biohazards are adequately addressed in the proposal. NSF also conducts rigorous peer evaluations for project selection.
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From page 107... ...
The following examples illustrate the range of strategies that the studied organizations use to ensure a full pipeline: • To balance its portfolio, ARS explicitly includes program coordination in its national program cycle, which addresses a program's ensemble of individual projects, especially their performance and potential implementation of their results; • To move research into practice more rapidly, FIATECH negotiates intellectual property issues with project participants right from the beginning; • To facilitate a diversity of research efforts, NIH has numerous funding mechanisms, including – Research projects to support a discrete and circumscribed objective and to be performed by the named investigators in an area repre senting specific interests and competencies; – Small Business Innovation Research Phase I grants to support proj ects, limited in time and amount, to establish the technical merit and feasibility of research and development ideas that may ultimately lead to commercial products or services;12 – Undergraduate Institutional Grants to enable minority institutions, at their discretion, to make training awards to individual students or staff; – Centers, contracts, collaborative agreements, or consortia, among other models; and • To make stronger connections to practice, the NSF partners with other, more mission-oriented organizations, as described in the pre vious subsection on research agenda setting. 12 All federal agencies with extramural programs above a certain amount are required to have a Small Business Innovation Research program.
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From page 108... ...
These evaluations involve peer assessment, with a focus on scientific merit. Oversight is provided by the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board.
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From page 109... ...
Similarly, NIH links basic research to clinical applications; NSF asks grantees to constantly keep the broader impacts of their research in mind; and NREL identifies each project's barriers to implementation. LESSONS LEARNED Although none of the domestic nontransportation research frameworks examined (those of ARS, the astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, FIATECH, NREL, NIH, and NSF)
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From page 110... ...
That is, effective agenda setting is inclusive, engaging stakeholders in the establishment of priorities and identification of projects. As a result, these communities have leverage in influencing funding allocations.
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The peer-review processes used by NSF and NIH, for example, are well accepted and, although they entail considerable time, effort, and in-kind contributions of the research communities, they provide an assessment of individual projects that is as objective as possible. Growing Opportunities for Basic Research NSF's mission and its broad-based experience in helping to seed and nurture basic research efforts offer potentially valuable lessons for initiating a basic research initiative in surface transportation.
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Presented to Committee on National Research Frameworks: Application to Transportation, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., Oct.
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