AASHTO RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE (RAC)

RESEARCH COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION TASK GROUP/TRB CONDUCT OF RESEARCH COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION SUBCOMMITTEE

MEETING MINUNTES

5/6/08

8:00 – 10:00 am Pacific

9:00 – 11:00 am Mountain

10:00 am – 12:00 pm Central

11:00 am – 1:00 pm Eastern

Call in information: (309) 946-4575; access code 821-277-679

Online at

Meeting ID: 821-277-679

  1. Introductions/Housekeeping
  2. Introductions

RAC C/C Members present: Steve Albert, Nancy Chinlund, Georgene Geary, Crawford Jencks, Wes Lum, Leni Oman, Larry Orcutt,Calvin Roberts, Sue Sillick,and Dawn Tucker.

COR C/C Members Present: Jason Bittner, Nancy Chinlund, Sam Elraham, Hau Hagedorn, Leni Oman, and Sue Sillick.

Friends present: Ned Parrishand Barbara Post

  1. Meeting notes –Georgene G.
  2. Changes/additions to agenda?None
  3. Corrections to 3/4/2008 meeting notes?Leni O. mentioned a change needed related to the NW Consortium. She providedthe change in an e-mail to Sue S. Sue will post the revised version to the web.
  1. Report on Action Items
  2. TRNews Article

Steve A. gave an overview of the proposed article. It will highlight success stories of partnering with the Feds, States and UTC’s, to foster positive communications. The themes have been identified. Sam E. volunteered to assist in the development of the article. In was noted that a recent RAC survey asked for success stories and that the UTC’s also submitted something similar last year. Nancy C.will send Steve some work she has already done summarizing the RAC survey.

  1. Unfunded Research Needs Search (
  2. Steve A. will put together a list of contacts for the conferences/road maps for possible addition to this search tool.

Steve did an outreach at TRB and will send the information to Sue S.

  1. TRB will post unfunded needs from CRP’s other than NCHRP

Crawford J.is working on posting unfunded needs from CRP’s other than NCHRP, which are already posted. He hopes to complete this task by the end of the month. The next step will be to filter the information in some way, perhaps through TRB committees or to add a disclaimer to the website that problem statements are unfiltered. Crawford will also make sure Google gets a TRB site map so that these sites can be indexed.

  1. Leni O. will draft guidelines for posting documents, such as research needs, to websites so that they are searchable.

Leni noted that this area is very complex, but she is putting together some bare bones guidance; she hoped to have that ready by the end of May.

  1. Tom M.and Steve A. will work to obtain beta testers for the unfunded research needs portal.

Steve reported there had been no progress on this item, but that he would send an email to the UTC’s. Sue volunteered to put together a blurb and a survey for beta testing. She’ll send it to this committee for review prior to Steve sending beta testing information to UTC’s.

  1. Felicia Y. and Dawn T. will investigate other sources of unfunded research needs at the national level, both within and outside of USDOT, such as STEP, EPA, FAA, FTA, NSF, SHRP 2, and freight sources.

Dawn also suggested transportation related Department of Homeland Security needs could be beneficial and may be available. She indicated they would like to start small, within USDOT. Leni mentioned Research Communities of Practice being developed by RITA. Dawn will provide latest information on the directions of this at the next meeting.

  1. RIP Training/Marketing/Data Entry (Nelda B./Barbara P./Sue S.)

Due to changes at FHWA, Bill Zaccagnino has replaced Nelda B. on this Committee. Only nine states didn’tsubmit records to RiP in calendar year 2007; three of these nine have agreed to update. Sue will follow-up with the others before the summer RAC meeting.

RIP andTRIS information will be going out with theTRBState visits. TRB will decide after the summer UTC meeting if more webinars should be offered. Barbara noted that she still had the FAQ and Glossary of RiP terms on her “ToDo” list.

A discussion was held on how to reach the actual RIP entry personnel in the States and UTCs. Business managers were discussed for the UTC’s, and follow-up at the summer meetings of the UTC and RAC was mentioned.

It was also mentioned the need to target TRB technical committees on the use of RIP as a tool for developing problem statements and preventing the duplication of efforts. Marketing should occur outside of the research community.

  1. Website/WIKI Development (Nancy C.)
  2. RAC Task Group website:

Sue S. noted that the SCOR/RAC C&C website has been updated. Nancy reported on the typical framework for the website documents. All members were asked to provide comments on the topical framework that Nancy C. will send to the group. Some preliminary discussions were to split by user groups (customer, research manager, researcher looking for funding, etc.), distinguish by program and project information, and include the 7 Keys.

The benefits of Wiki’s were discussed. Members were encouraged to start using to get more people used to the Wiki system, which shares the burden of maintaining content and keeping the site updated. Dawn mentioned that she would check on RITA’s plans to develop a SharePoint website for the research communities of practice (COP’s).

The Task Group decided to link the URNS (Unfunded Research Needs Search) site from the RAC C&C website as a beta.

  1. TRB COR website is pending update.
  1. Bubble Charts (Leni O.)
  2. Leni O. and Dawn T. will work on the WSDOT Bubble charts.

A draft of the Bubble chart was shown by Leni. FRA, FAA, NHTSA not yet included. Leni will send out latest version of chart and spreadsheet for comments.Solicitation timing and eligibility will be added.

  1. Leni will see if the SCOE fishbone chart is posted to a website.

Fishbone was posted in March by the AASHTOCenter for Environmental Excellence at .

  1. TRB Brochure (Sue S.)
  2. Committee members should provide comments on outline (attached), draft NCHRP section (attached), and let Sue S. know if you are interested in drafting any sections of this document.

TRB Brochure is now called TRB booklet/tome. Outline and draft NCHRP section was discussed. Crawford J. suggested perhaps the NCHRP section was too long. A calendar of timelines was discussed. Drafts for each section will be due 7/1/08. It was also suggested to add a section of preventing duplication of research. Barbara P. will write the last section and include information on tools available to prevent duplication of efforts. It was mentioned that the goal is to have the final document prepared by September 2008.

Volunteers were requested to assist. Crawford J. volunteered to assist with the TRB programs. Leni O. volunteered to write up a draft for Section 1. Dawn T. and Felicia Y.were asked tofind volunteers for the Federal portion. Jason B.volunteered to write UTC portion.

DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS ITEMS 3-6 WILL BE DISCUSSED NEXT MEETING

  1. Other coordination and collaboration activities
  2. Colin F. and Dick M. will facilitate website coordination between AASHTO and TRB of NCHRP 20-07 projects.
  3. Leni O. noted that the authorization piece oncoordination and collaboration was moved forward in SCOR’s recommendations to AASHTO.
  4. Reporton National UTC Coordination and Collaboration Activities (Steve A.)
  5. TRIS Strategic Plan Focus Groups Update (Barbara P./Sue S.)
  6. Objectives
  7. Partnering articles in TRNews.
  8. Unfunded research needs portal.
  9. RIP data entry, training, and marketing.
  10. Website/WIKI Development.
  11. Bubble Charts.
  12. TRB Research Brochure.
  1. Meetings (All) – Do we want to continue to try to meet monthly or would bimonthly work better?Next Meetings (as currently scheduled) – Mark your calendars!
  2. 6/3/08, 7/1/08, 8/5/08, 9/2/08, 10/7/208, 11/13/08, and 12/2/08.

The group discussed holding a conference call every other month and having the Chair send out a reminder of action items on the off month; all seemed to be in agreement. This year’s C&C break out at the NRAC meeting is Wednesday July 16th from 10:15am – noon (note: time is not set in stone yet). Sue volunteered to send out an email to see how many will attend the July 16th meeting. The July 1st meeting will be moved to July 16th depending upon the anticipated number of attendees.

  1. 6/3/08Agenda items(All) – Suggestions?
  1. SCOR Strategic Plan

Coordination and collaboration activities identified in the SCOR strategic plan will be discussed by this group when SCOR approves their strategic plan.

ACTION ITEMS

Sue S. will update the website with revised March meeting notes.

Nancy C will send Steve A. some work she has already done summarizing the RAC survey for his use in the TR Article.

Steve A. will send the information to Sueon his outreach at TRB regarding other possible sources of unfunded research needs.

Crawford J. will make sure unfunded problem statements for all CRP’s are posted to their website. He’ll let Sue S. know when this happens so that she can request they be added to the unfunded research needs search tool.

Crawford J. will make sure a TRB site map is sent to Google so that Google can index the CRP unfunded problem statements.

Leni O.will draft guidelines for posting documents, such as research needs, to websites so that they are searchable.

Sue will put together a blurb and a survey for the portal. She will send it out to the task group for review.

Steve A. will send an email to the UTC’s looking for beta testers.

Dawn T. and Felicia Y. will investigate other sources of unfunded research needs at the national level.

Dawn T. will provide latest information on the RITA COP’s and WIKI development at the next meeting.

All members were asked to provide comments on the topical framework that Nancy C. will send to the group.

TRB Research booklet volunteers (Leni O., Barbara P., Jason B., Felicia Y., Dawn T., and Crawford J.) will draft their sections by 7/1/08.