METRANS UTC funds research that increases US economic competitiveness by improving transportation system performance in large metropolitan areas.  Regular tenure track full-time faculty members and research faculty at the University of Southern California and California State University, Long Beach, are eligible to serve as Principal Investigators. Proposals may also include as Co-Principal Investigators research or non-tenure track USC and CSULB faculty. 

METRANS UTC issues requests-for-proposals (RFPs) to support its research program. We follow a peer-reviewed proposal selection process in which each proposal is submitted to reviewers from universities, public agencies, and private firms. USC and CSULB faculty do not participate in the proposal review process. Selection for funding depends on a number of criteria, including relevance to the METRANS mission, intellectual merit, and student support. All research is expected to result in publications in refereed journals.

The first METRANS Tier 1 UTC RFP was issued in March 2014 and projects have been awarded.

The second METRANS Tier 1 UTC RFP was issued on December 9, 2014.  Proposals were due February 11, 2015.  Projects have been awarded.

The third METRANS Tier 1 UTC RFP was issued on March 24, 2015.  Proposals were due April 27, 2015.  Projects have been awarded.

The fourth METRANS Tier 1 UTC RFP was issued on March 11, 2016. Proposals were due April 15, 2016. Projects have been awarded.

The fifth METRANS Tier 1 UTC RFP was issued on March 17, 2017. Proposals were due April 19, 2017. Projects have been awarded.

For information on the RFP process, please contact:

Cort Brinkerhoff, Associate Director of Administration
METRANS Transportation Center
University of Southern California
3335 S. Figueroa St, Unit A, 100H
Los Angeles, CA 90089-7273
(213) 740-4297
[email protected]

Our research program is organized around two multimodal themes: 1) understanding passenger/freight interactions; and 2) achieving system efficiencies.  A series of launch projects were pre-reviewed as part of the METRANS UTC Tier 1 proposal.  The launch projects are listed below.

For a searchable database of all METRANS UTC research, use the following search filter.