The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is unveiling a Notice of Funding Opportunity to enhance innovations in transportation science and research.
The awards, sourced from the DOT’s University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program, will be given to projects that advance transportation science and innovation. This can include projects focusing on increased safety on American transportation, such as with automated vehicles and driving systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital infrastructure, and human-machine interface technologies.
The UTC Program is competitively selected based on the quality of proposed research projects, planned education and workforce development activities, and potential for moving technologies into practice. The program gave its first awards to 10 universities in 1988 and has since awarded grants to over 100 different universities. The UTC program funds three types of centers; National which focuses on projects of a national scope, Regional, which address regional needs as well as national priorities, and Tier 1 which places its focus on unique and specific areas of interest.
In this specific round of funding, the $33 million in grants will be awarded to five University Transportation Centers. One grant up to $9 million over three years will be awarded to one Regional UTC. Grants up to $6 million over three years will be given to four Tier 1 UTCs. Each grant awarded will be broken into specific funding over three fiscal years, FY 26-27, FY 27-28, and FY 28-29.
U.S. non-profit institutions of higher education and qualifying two-year institutions that meet the requirements of 20 U.S.C. § 1001(a) are eligible to apply. They must have the intent to establish and operate University Transportation Centers with the following objectives
- Advance transportation expertise and technology in the varied disciplines that comprise the field of transportation through education, research, and technology transfer activities
- Provide for a critical multimodal transportation knowledge base outside of DOT
- Address critical workforce needs and educate the next generation of transportation leaders with respect to the statutory research priorities
The lead institutions of each of the 30 current UTC Program grants selected in the 2022-2023 award process are not eligible to apply for this round of funding.
The application process for the UTC Program grant awards is open now. A Letter of Intent must be submitted by Jan. 19, 2026. It must include the non-profit institution that will submit the application as the lead of the consortium, the type of UTC for which is being applied, the statutory research priority, and contact information. The final application for the awards is due Feb. 20, 2026.
Photo by Brennan Tolman from Pexels
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