1. LTRC 30th Anniversary -- External Program Overview
by Vijaya (VJ) Gopu, Ph.D., P.E. Associate Director – External Programs ltrc March 8, 2017

2. Background
In the fall of 2006, LTRC decided to establish an external program initiative managed by an Associate Director (for External Programs) with very specific goals.
LTRC

3. Background (Contd.)
Increase the external research support in the transportation area for faculty at all universities in the state.
Identify funding opportunities at external agencies (NCHRP, TRCP, ACRP, NCFRP, FHWA, FRA, FTA, NHTSA, RITA, NSF, DHS, NIST, DOE, etc.) in the broad area of transportation engineering, planning and management.
LTRC

4. Background (Contd.)
Organize faculty teams/clusters that can be most responsive to a funding opportunity in the transportation area and channel these through LTRC.
LTRC

5. Background (Contd.)
Involve talented faculty at various universities in providing advanced education and training opportunities to the transportation/construction industry work force and DOTD engineers. (This is in support of the tech transfer and training activities of LTRC)
LTRC

6. Background (Contd.)
Facilitate a course sharing program – in the transportation area -- supported jointly by multiple universities in the state to provide opportunities for LADOTD engineers and other practicing engineers to have access to a wide spectrum of courses otherwise not available at the home institution.
LTRC

7. Significance of LTRC’s External Program Initiative to Louisiana Universities
LTRC is the only Center of its kind in the nation that has established an external program initiative with a key goal of increasing the external research support in the transportation area for faculty at all universities in the state.
LTRC

8. Significance of LTRC’s External Program Initiative to Louisiana Universities (Contd.)
The initiative fosters development of multi-campus and multi-disciplinary research proposals in the transportation area by eliminating the need for budget management by a lead university – often a sore point in multi-campus efforts.
LTRC

9. Significance of LTRC’s External Program Initiative to Louisiana Universities (Contd.)
The research dollars stretch farther since, unlike a lead university in a multi-campus effort, LTRC doesn’t levy indirect costs on sub- contracts that it awards.
The initiative utilizes the full research capacity of the state, an approach necessary to complete with regional powerhouses, i.e. Texas A&M, UT-Austin, University of Florida, GaTech.
LTRC

10. Research Proposals Submitted to External Agencies (January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2016)
Period
Number of External Funding Proposals Submitted
Total Amount Requested by LTRC and its Partners
Number of External Proposals Funded
External Funds Received by LTRC (excludes Partners’ Funding and includes matching)
2007 & 2008 23
$11.5M 14
AVERAGE
2009 & 2010 21
$7.7M 8
ANNUAL
2011 & 2012
$23.7M 5
EXTERNAL
2013 & 2014
$22.5M 2
FUNDING
2015 & 2016 7
$46.7M
$1.8M

11. Important Facts
LTRC became the first state DOT managed research center in the nation to be certified by the National Science Foundation as an eligible recipient of large NSF grants in LTRC received its first large NSF grant ($337K) in It took only 1,200 pages of documentation to get gain this eligibility.
LTRC

12. Important Facts
Forty eight faculty members at LSU, UNO, UL-Lafayette, LaTech and Southern have participated in proposals submitted to external agencies by LTRC.
LTRC has partnered with over 60 universities across the country in several consortium proposals submitted to federal agencies.
LTRC

13. Important Facts (Contd.)
The NCITEC (National Center for IntermodalTransportation for Economic Competitiveness -- Tier 1 UTC) partnership has enabled LTRC to support 15 research projects with a total budget of $2.6M with an investment of $350K.
The Tran-SET (a Regional UTC) partnership will enable LTRC to support over 50 research projects over a five year period with an overall budget of $6M with an investment of approximately $1.2M.
LTRC

14. Other External Program Activities
NSF programs officers managing the geotech, structure and natural hazards programs visited LTRC on a triennial basis to meeting with civil engineering faculty members from the various state unversities. Faculty members benefited from the suggestions and advice offered by the program officers to develop competitive proposals.
LTRC

15. Other External Program Activities
Four workshops on “How to Develop a Competitive Proposal” were offered at LSU, UL- Lafayette and at two ASEE Regional Conferences by Drs. VJ Gopu and Roger Seals.
LTRC is a member of the NSF University Industry Cooperative Research Center on “Integration of Composities in Infrastructure” (CICI) and benefits from the research work carried out at all the consortium members.
LTRC

16. Other External Program Activities
The External Program organizes biennial mini-workshops for faculty members to meet with the LADOTD engineers and staff and learn about their research interests/needs. Faculty members at all state universities are invited to participate in the mini-workshops.
LTRC

17. Concluding Comments
LTRC has made a very concerted effort to collaborate with universities serving as lead institutions for UTC Tier 1 or UTC Regional proposals. Success of these proposals have allowed and will allow LTRC to award research projects to Louisiana faculty with funds otherwise not available. Several faculty members have benefited from LTRC’s status as a TIER 1 UTC site for the past five years and several more are going to benefit from LTRC’s state as a Regional UTC site.

18. Concluding Comments
In addition to seeking funding from a variety of federal sources, LTRC is also providing support to university faculty that are pursuing federal funding.
LTRC is playing an important role in securing federal transportation research dollars to support faculty and boost research activity at the state’s universities and simultaneous address the research needs of LADOTD.

19. Concluding Comments
The Assoc. Director for External Programs has served on over forty NSF Centers Site Review Panels and Proposal Review Panels to be effective in guiding faculty involved in developing proposals for funding.

20. Thank You