USDOT Region V Regional University Transportation Center

The NEXTRANS Center has been selected to receive $3.5 million in new grant funding from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for continued research, education and technology transfer.  Following a competitive selection process, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the selection of twenty-two university transportation centers to receive a total of $77 million to address critical transportation challenges.

The NEXTRANS Center was established in 2007 based on a competitive award from USDOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) to conduct a multidisciplinary program of transportation research, education and technology transfer.  NEXTRANS, a regional university transportation center representing federal region 5, is a multi-university consortium of universities from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  The Center also has many partners from the public and private sectors that provide a combination of financial, technical, logistical, and strategic collaborations. 

The vision of the NEXTRANS Center is to seek integrated and sustainable solutions to transportation-related problems that further leverage technology when appropriate.  In addition to seeking holistic transportation solutions, it will explore the linkage of transportation to energy security, environmental sustainability and climate change.  In addition, the role of transportation in fostering economic revitalization and global economic competiveness will be examined.  The Center will foster the principles of integration and sustainability in developing solutions that range from concepts to deployment in the context of policy, planning, design, implementation, operations, maintenance, and management for transportation-related needs.

In addition, several activities related to transportation workforce development will be continued and expanded including education programs for P-12, undergraduate and graduate students, and current professionals.   

NEXTRANS is administered by Purdue University’s Discovery Park and is located in the Purdue Research Park.  Srinivas Peeta, professor of civil engineering, is the director of the NEXTRANS Center.