2022 BIL UTC Competition
UPDATE 2/21/2023: Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced up to $435 million in grant awards for 34 University Transportation Centers. These awards will assist the next generation of transportation professionals in making our roads, bridges, rail, shipping, and airspace more innovative, resilient and equitable as well as help the American people travel more safely, quickly, and affordably. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), there will be five National, ten Regional and twenty Tier One University Transportation Centers (UTCs), which will respectively receive $4 million, $3 million and $2 million annually for five years. Click here for the list of BIL University Centers and their Consortium members.
Applicants Debriefing Note: The UTC Program’s FY2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity stated that, “in conformance with the transparency requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 6503(b)(5), and in order to provide feedback for applicants’ use on future applications, applicants may (upon request) receive copies of materials used in the evaluation of their applications after the conclusion of this competition.”
The UTC Program office is taking a more active approach to feedback, so within the next eight weeks we will e-mail to the proposed Center Director on each application, a copy of that application’s reviews including reviewers’ assessments of that application as well as any reviewer comments that were made during the review. Applicants do not need to request copies of reviews – reviews will be sent to each applicant from our UTCgrants@dot.gov e-mail address.
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UPDATE 11/2/2022: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 authorized $90 million per year from Federal Fiscal Years 2022-2026 for a new round of University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program grants to be competitively selected. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) opened on May 25, 2022. By the application deadline of August 25, 2022, a total of 230 applications were received, which represents the largest number of applications submitted ever in the 35-year history of the UTC Program.
The breakdown for each:
- 33 applications were received for the five National UTCs to be selected
- 28 applications were received for the 10 Regional UTCs to be selected
- 169 applications were received for the 20 Tier 1 UTCs to be selected.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) represents the largest-ever investment in the nation’s infrastructure. To give each application a full and fair review, the U.S. Department of Transportation expects UTC awards to be announced in early 2023.
IMPORTANT NOTICE, AUGUST 24, 2022: If you are experiencing issues related to Grants.gov submission of your application caused by delays in the SAM.gov system that have affected processing entity registration or management of roles for your organization, please e-mail UTCgrants@dot.gov with a request for approval of an alternate application-submission option. In order to be considered, your request must include documentation of your attempts to obtain through SAM.gov the necessary registration/roles that show a) when you began the process and b) what key steps you have taken to try to resolve the issue. IF YOUR REQUEST FOR AN ALTERNATE SUBMISSION IS APPROVED, YOU MUST BE PREPARED TO ELECTRONICALLY SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION BY THE NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY’S DEADLINE of 11:59PM EDT ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2022, with the required hard copy submission to follow by 5:00PM EDT on Tuesday, August 30 as stated in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. In order to complete the requirement for submission of applications through Grants.gov, any applicant approved for this alternate submission will receive instructions on how to submit the identical application to Grants.gov allowing additional time for access/roles to be established and will need to do so no later than October 7, 2022.
REMINDER: All parts of the application must be submitted through Grants.gov which is the official submission of your application. Applications submitted through Grants.gov that do not include all parts of the application will be considered incomplete. As stated in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (page 34), the hard-copy requirement is for “identical information to what you submitted through www.grants.gov” and is “[i]n addition to submitting your application electronically through www.grants.gov”. If you have not already seen them, please view the questions-and-answers on the Competition Q&As webpage (https://www.transportation.gov/utc/2022-utc-competition-questions-and-answers) related to Grants.gov and submission of your application, especially questions labeled Attaching Documents in Grants.gov (8/4/2022) and Items Other than SF424/SF424B in Grants.gov (6/8/2022).
2022 COMPETITION
- Q&As about the Notice of Funding Opportunity
- Historically Black College & University and Minority Serving Institution Briefing by USDOT
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 has authorized $90 million per year from Federal Fiscal Years 2022-2026 for a new round of University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program grants to be competitively selected in 2022. The Notice of Funding Opportunity for this competition is now available, and applications must be submitted through www.grants.gov, using Assistance Listing 20.701 or Opportunity Number
UTCOPENCOMP2022.
Opening Date: May 25, 2022
Requested Date for Letter of Intent: July 1, 2022
Required Application Due: August 25, 2022
Please watch this space for additional information.
UPDATE: Large Number of Letters of Intent Received for UTC Program Grants (7/05/22)
As of the requested submission date of July 1 for Letters of Intent for this competition, a record-high number of 265 Letters were received:
- 36 for National UTCs (5 to be selected)
- 26 for Regional UTCs (10 to be selected)
- 203 for Tier 1 UTCs (20 to be selected)
Late submission of a Letter of Intent from a non-profit institution of higher education will be accepted if it is received before the August 25, 2022 application deadline.
Q&As about the Notice of Funding Opportunity
As noted on page 38 of the Notice, questions about the NOFO or the UTC Program may be e-mailed to UTCgrants@dot.gov. Questions will be answered from that address, after which questions and answers (with identifying information removed) will be posted at 2022 UTC Competition Questions and Answers. Please check this page often, as new questions will be posted every few days.
Pages 7-8, 19, and 20 of the Notice of Funding Opportunity reference a new Research, Development and Technology (RD&T) Strategic Plan being developed by US DOT. That document is not yet finalized or released, but applicants who wish to see a draft version of it for use in writing their applications may e-mail a request to UTCgrants@dot.gov.
Historically Black College & University and Minority Serving Institution Briefing by USDOT
On June 2, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm ET, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Department Office of Civil Rights Director Irene Marion provided remarks on the Department’s recently released Equity Action Plan. Dr. Robert Hampshire, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research & Technology, provided this administration’s vision for transportation research and discuss USDOT’s strategic goals, RDT Strategic Plan, and how USDOT is committed to increasing Historically Black College & University and Minority Institution participation in the University Transportation Centers Program. Dr. Firas Ibrahim, Director for the Office of Research, Development & Technology, and his staff provided general competition information on the University Transportation Centers Program Notice of Funding Opportunity that seeks competitive grant applications for National, Regional, and Tier 1 University Transportation Centers. The webinar concluded with a Q&A session.
The Power Point presentation is available here: HBCU and MSI Webinar Presentation Slides
The recording of the briefing is available here: HBCU and MSI Webinar Recording Use the Passcode: D8K6Z?S$
The HBCU and MSI Webinar's Questions and Answers are located here: HBCU and MSI Webinar Q&A