The Department of Transportations (DOT) Research, Development and Technology (RD&T) programs foster innovations leading to effective, integrated, and intermodal transportation solutions. This Transportation Research, Development and Technology Strategic Plan 2006-2010 responds to requirements in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users for a five-year plan to guide transportation RD&T activities. It describes the strategic goals that are the primary purposes for RD&T and the RD&T strategies and emerging research priorities required to accomplish these goals.
For each RD&T strategy, the plan identifies anticipated funding levels and information the Department expects to gain. The plan incorporates the RD&T programs of all DOT operating administrations and considers how research by other Federal agencies, State DOTs, the private sector, academic institutions, and others contributes to Departmental goals and how unnecessary duplication is avoided. The National Research Council’s (NRC) Transportation Research Board has reviewed the plan.
The Department, with leadership from the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), developed this Transportation Research, Development and Technology Strategic Plan through an ongoing coordination process involving all DOT operating administrations. Two cross modal bodies lead this process: the RD &T Planning Council, composed of the heads of the operating administrations, the Under Secretary for Policy, and other senior DOT leaders; and the RD &T Planning Team, including the operating administrations Associate Administrators for RD&T. The result is cross modal planning and collaboration of RD&T at the highest levels of the Department.