Faculty Research Grants
UCTC was recently awarded a federal University Transportation Center grant as the Region 9 center of the US Department of Transportation, with joint funding support from Caltrans. UCTC’s research mission spans three important, and not unrelated, topics: environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, and livability. Research proposals are to be in one or more of these focus areas. Research may be in any discipline, and multidisciplinary topics are encouraged when appropriate. UCTC research focuses on surface (ground) transportation but proposals on air or maritime transportation topics that have significant surface transportation components within these three themes will also be considered. Caltrans is also interested in research topics consistent with UCTC’s theme as listed in the Appendix to the RFP posted here and in the links in the box above.
Multidisciplinary research among these three thematic areas is encouraged as are collaborations across UC campuses and among faculty from UCTC affiliates at California State University campuses of Pomona, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Sacramento.
Please note: PIs may submit only one proposal as either a PI or co-PI. Faculty may be a non-PI or non co-PI on more than one proposal. In partnership with UC PIs, CSU faculty with PI status may participate in and co-PI interdisciplinary multi-campus proposals that address two or more UCTC themes.
UCTC allows just one research project at a time per PI. If a PI has one or more incomplete UCTC-funded research projects, then this PI may not receive new research support until prior work is completed.
There is a 2-step process for submitting an application. First, applicants must email forms@UCTC.net by May 3, 2013 to request an online proposal submission link. Then, proposals may be submitted through this link to UCTC no later than May 7, 2013.
$120,000 is the upper limit for research funding. The UCTC faculty research program focuses on seeding new research projects, not larger, multi-year efforts. We will entertain proposals of up to $160,000 for interdisciplinary work that spans two or more UCTC themes and that involves collaborations between two or more campuses of the consortium – i.e., across some combination of the six UC and four CSU campuses.
Reporting requirements:
- For a project to be officially completed, a working paper must be submitted immediately upon completion of the research project—prior to any submissions and publication in journals. The delivered product should correspond closely to the awarded topic. The title and scope of the paper must be consistent with the title and scope of the funded project. Journal articles and published papers submitted as the product of a research grant must acknowledge UCTC funding support.
- When a PI submits a published paper, the PI may choose to have the published paper posted online with a reference that indicates that it supersedes the earlier working paper.
- UCTC sponsors continue to stress the importance of disseminating research results in a concise, easy-to-read format. To ensure UCTC research reaches a wider audience, recipients of grants will be required to do at least one of the following within one year of concluding the work: (a) publish a shorter version of the working paper in ACCESS or similar professional publication; (b) write a 500-600-word, 2-page UCTC Policy Brief; or (c) present the work in a Caltrans-UTC webinar or similar on-line forum.
To submit a UCTC-funded paper for posting to our website, please send the paper to forms@uctc.net. Please also note which research grant supported this paper.
For email addresses and reporting forms, please visit the Forms page.
