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About the Transportation Pooled Fund Program

When significant or widespread interest is shown in solving transportation-related problems, research, planning, and technology transfer activities may be jointly funded by several federal, state, regional, and local transportation agencies, academic institutions, foundations, or private firms as a pooled fund study.

To qualify as a pooled fund study, more than one state transportation agency, federal agency, other agency such as a municipality or metropolitan planning organization, college/university or a private company must find the subject important enough to commit funds or other resources to conduct the research, planning, and technology transfer activity. If a subject has been studied previously, the new study should provide new information that will complement or advance previous investigations of the subject matter.

A federal, state, regional, or local transportation agency may initiate pooled fund studies. Private companies, foundations, and colleges/universities may partner with any or all of the sponsoring agencies to conduct pooled fund projects.

Reengineering of Program
FHWA recently reengineered the pooled fund program to increase its already recognized value as part of the national Research and Technology Program. Of particular note are three changes:

	eliminating the "national" and "regional" labels;
	instituting an option for States to use the Transportation Research Board or the FHWA to administer individual studies; and
	establishing a web site for soliciting, monitoring, and reporting on progress and results of studies.

The change in the two project labels, national and regional was made because the labels only made a distinction about who led a project--FHWA or a State, respectively. For clarity, we now refer to projects as "FHWA-led" or "State-led." The first two changes have occurred. The last, the web site, is being developed in conjunction with NCHRP Project 20-39(2), "Improved Transportation Research-In-Progress Data System," and is anticipated to be launched in fall 2002.

Project Numbers
Historically, pooled fund studies have been numbered either SPR-2(###) for the FHWA-led (national) studies and SPR-3(###) for the State-led (regional) studies. Many projects using these numbers are still active. With the reengineering of the program, however, a new numbering series has been established, TPF-5(###), encompassing both FHWA- and State-led studies.

Contacts
Lisa Williams is the FHWA contact for questions regarding research pooled fund studies. She can be reached at (202) 493-3375 or FHWAPooledFund@fhwa.dot.gov. Kenneth Petty is the FHWA contact for requests to waive the matching requirements for planning related pooled fund studies. He can be reached at (202) 366-6654 or kenneth.petty@dot.gov.