Managing State Transportation Research Programs (2019) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 13-42
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13 1.1 General Observations This Synthesis seeks to rise above one-off differences in the structures and processes of state DOT research programs, and comment more holistically on how patterns of differences could relate to program quality and value. In this context, the literature revealed significant gaps in what is systematically known about state DOT research programs and confirmed that there are few tools or resources and little guidance available to state DOTs on how to effectively manage research programs.
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14 Managing State Transportation Research Programs communicate findings, and translate them into practice. Based on existing literature, executive engagement appears to be an important enabling factor for research programs.
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Literature Review 15 Center for Accelerating Innovation Innovation initiatives play a major role in setting a research program's direction. FHWA established the Center for Accelerating Innovation (CAI)
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16 Managing State Transportation Research Programs Act, which was signed into law in 2015. The FHWA provides annual funding up to $100,000 and technical assistance for STICs as part of the STIC Incentive Program.
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Literature Review 17 relationships but also to exercise thought leadership and knowledge-building activities through university transportation centers (UTCs) , jointly sponsored conferences, and so on.
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18 Managing State Transportation Research Programs and require a different skill orientation compared to other DOT positions, often making it more difficult to recruit for these positions. State DOTs' research programs depend on a reliable labor pool with three main types of skill sets: 1.
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Literature Review 19 the Minnesota Department of Transportation at this peer exchange. This model has two dimensions -- level of extraversion/introversion and the degree of being task focused or people focused (Marston 1928)
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20 Managing State Transportation Research Programs environmental -- and the application of this knowledge to new transportation systems and services. Research is enhanced by professionals who are knowledgeable of other "parallel" fields such as 1.
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Literature Review 21 Workforce training to build expertise specifically for research staff members has undergone development through the Ahead of the Curve training program. This curriculum set is run through the TRB Task Force ABG05T: Mastering the Management of Transportation Research and Training Program.
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22 Managing State Transportation Research Programs • The scope of work is defined at work breakdown structure (WBS) Level 6 or lower.
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Literature Review 23 Previous research studies have not conducted systematic analyses of state DOTs' sources of funding, fund amounts, or proportions of the total research budget. Additionally, since many of these funds are near-term or 1-year programs, existing research available on state agency funding portfolios is dated.
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24 Managing State Transportation Research Programs allocated. As discussed earlier, there is wide variation in funding sources, and most programs receive funds from more than one source.
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Literature Review 25 Reserve and Discretionary Funds. Maintaining reserve and discretionary funds for immediate needs provides additional flexibility in dynamic research areas.
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26 Managing State Transportation Research Programs Some mechanisms for assessing research needs might include the development of a research strategic plan, participation by cross-divisional agency committees, the creation of problem statement lists, and so on. Oklahoma, for example, utilizes a cross-divisional research steering committee (similar to a research advisory committee)
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Literature Review 27 because of the formality of the prioritization process, as well as the committee's decisions not being accountable to a strategic plan. What is not revealed is the committee's composition to determine its correlation to overarching agency goals and objectives.
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28 Managing State Transportation Research Programs decision makers more important than the use of objective criteria and that 79% felt that their agency's method of selecting projects was likely to give the agency maximum research value (Oregon DOT 2011)
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Literature Review 29 within budget, to the desired level of quality, and in a university environment where it is almost unheard of to be able to please everyone" (Johnson 2013)
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30 Managing State Transportation Research Programs a tool would need to be adaptable as each state modifies its programs and processes in the future" (Michigan DOT, LTRC 2013)
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Literature Review 31 It is uncommon for a position to be dedicated to implementation, though participants agreed that appointing an in-house, well-connected official within the state DOT to coordinate implementation as a key component of his or her job enables a higher likelihood of implementation success (Seeber and Hirt 2017)
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32 Managing State Transportation Research Programs Box 1 provides examples of research quality principles and accountability mechanisms for how states achieve research quality, taken from the Four-States Virtual Research Peer Exchange and the Ohio DOT Research Peer Exchange. The Kansas and Missouri Research Peer Exchange on Improving the Quality and Timeliness of Research Reports (Texas A&M Transportation Institute 2017)
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Literature Review 33 Box 2. Guidelines for Improving Research Quality 1.
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34 Managing State Transportation Research Programs payment through this mechanism, and 13 of them do not. This is an example of a quality assurance/quality control practice that is used by some state DOTs to promote program quality specific to projects contracted out.
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Literature Review 35 1.4.2 Performance Measures Measuring the results of research and its benefits is necessary to understand process efficiency as well as the overall quality of the research program. However, research evaluation lacks scientific rigor at present, and many state DOTs may not consistently measure actual research impact on their transportation systems.
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36 Managing State Transportation Research Programs were presented by executive leadership at the state DOTs, a detail that should not be lost. There is a lack of previous research done on executive engagement's ultimate effect on program value through efforts such as research program marketing.
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Literature Review 37 by maximizing the impact of new knowledge discovered through research. This most commonly comes in the form of research implementation.
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38 Managing State Transportation Research Programs 3. Feasibility of implementation -- how plausible is it for a project to be implemented?
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Literature Review 39 Responsibility for Implementation Implementation requires an initial evaluation of a project's readiness for implementation through subject matter experts and experienced practitioners through roles such as project champion, or as members of technical advisory panels. If these experts have been involved since the beginning of the research lifecycle, then they are likely able to ascertain readiness for implementation at multiple stages during the lifecycle and advise on the implementation plan during research completion.
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40 Managing State Transportation Research Programs Who is responsible for the implementation of research results? California Project Managers Colorado In process of hiring an Implementation Engineer District of Columbia Technical staff in requesting department Florida Functional Area Champions Monitoring: Research Center Performance Coordinator Georgia Research Implementation Manager Illinois Research Implementation Engineer Indiana Project Managers Iowa Office associated with the project Louisiana The Project Review Committee or the Research Champion, with assistance of the Technical Liaison Maine Project Champion Maryland Technical office that requested the research Minnesota Practitioner or an expert in the topic area Missouri Project Manager and the technical research champion Nevada Implementation falls to internal "customers" New Hampshire Project Champion New Jersey Research project customer who initiates a project with a problem statement New Mexico Research Implementation Engineer North Carolina NCDOT customer is ultimately responsible for implementation of research Monitoring: Research Implementation Manager Ohio Technical expert responsible for that type of work Project Managers are involved with project implementation Oregon Research Customer Texas Project Managers Utah Research Division: (1)
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Literature Review 41 Examples include details on the "before and after" attributes of a system and the impacts or changes due to the implementation of a research finding. Evaluating the Research Program Much research has been conducted on performance measures for research programs.
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42 Managing State Transportation Research Programs and enhance value through these monitoring and evaluation mechanisms allows this study's analysis to delve into the structural and procedural aspects of maximizing and sustaining value in research programs. 1.6 Conclusion Previous Synthesis reports, peer exchanges, AASHTO surveys, and annual reports published by state DOTs shed light on many important facets of state transportation research programs from the dimensions of program capability, program management, program quality, and program value.
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