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State Planning and Research (SP&R) Guide

TRB

The Transportation Research Board promotes innovation and progress in transportation by encouraging research, communication and implementation activities.

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Congress established the National Academy of Sciences in 1863 so "whenever called upon by any department of the Government, [to] investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art…." To keep pace with the growing importance of science and technology, the NAS eventually expanded to include the National Research Council (NRC) in 1916, the National Academy of Engineering in 1964, and the Institute of Medicine in 1970. Collectively, these organizations are called the National Academies. The Academies' service to government has become so essential that Congress and the White House have issued legislation and executive orders over the years that reaffirm its unique role.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a unit of the NRC, a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. The Board's mission is to promote innovation and progress in transportation by stimulating and conducting research, facilitating the dissemination of information, and encouraging the implementation of research results.

TRB fulfills this mission through the work of its standing technical committees and task forces addressing all modes and aspects of transportation; publication and dissemination of reports and peer-reviewed technical papers on research findings; administration of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP); conduct of special studies on transportation policy issues at the request of the U.S. Congress and government agencies; operation of an on-line computerized file of transportation research information; and the hosting of an annual meeting that typically attracts 8,000 transportation professionals from throughout the United States and abroad.

TRB's varied activities annually draw on more than 4,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest. The Board is supported by state transportation departments, the various administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation and other federal agencies, industry associations, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

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