UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT OF A TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT'S RESEARCH PROGRAM

The Transportation Center of the University of Tennessee has entered into agreement with the Tennessee Dept of Transportation to manage a university research program. Six state universities and the University of Tennessee cooperate in the program. The Transportation Center manages the program as part of its research management functions and is the contracting agency. The commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation and a vice president of the university have the final authority in all contractual matters. An office is maintained within the Tennessee Department of Transportation headquarters. The program encompasses research in all modes of transportation and involves many disciplines. An executive committee formulates policy, approves the work program, and approves the awarding of research for all technical aspects of the program. Monitoring teams work closely with the researchers and are responsible for implementation of research findings. The technical aspects of the program include the formulation of research needs through the development of problem statements, which are ranked in the order of need. The highest-ranked problem statements are developed into request for proposals and forwarded to the cooperating universities, which respone in accordance with their capabilities. The proposals are evaluated, and an institution is selected to conduct the research. Agreements of understanding then are prepared and executed. (Authors)