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Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced it will provide more than $13.8 million in grants to eight university transportation centers to advance research and education programs that address “critical transportation challenges facing the nation,” USDOT officials said in a prepared statement.

The department's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) awarded the following grants:

• The University of Vermont Transportation Research Center obtained $3.2 million to support research, education and outreach on sustainable transportation systems.

• The University of California Transportation Center received $2.1 million to fund research on such topics as goods movement, air quality impact assessment, eco-friendly driving and transit-oriented development.

• The NEXTRANS Center, headquartered at Purdue University, was awarded $2.1 million to develop integrated solutions to transportation challenges by capturing the interactions between vehicle, traveler and infrastructure.
 
• A consortium of nine universities in five states, the Southeastern Transportation Center obtained $2.1 million to provide educational assistance to undergraduate and graduate students throughout the southeastern region and support basic and applied research into comprehensive transportation safety.

• The National Transportation Research Center Inc., based at the University of Tennessee, was awarded $2 million to develop public-private research partnerships focused on improving heavy vehicle safety.

• The University of Maryland’s Center for Integrated Transportation Systems Management received $926,700 to continue developing advanced technology, improving processes and enhancing organizational structures for the management and operation of transportation facilities and corridors.

• The Michigan Center for Advancing Safe Transportation throughout the Lifespan, based at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, was awarded $925,700 to support research on cognitive changes in drivers.

• University Transportation Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is addressing transportation safety, trauma care and injury control issues associated with the ways people travel, received $550,000.