SMART

The Orton Family Foundation invites proposals from small cities and towns committed to planning for a future that preserves and enhances their “heart and soul” —those places, people and customs that make them unique. The Foundation helps communities navigate change while upholding what they value most. We offer an innovative approach to community planning that unlocks potential by identifying local values, building a vision from them, and prioritizing actions. We seek towns where community partners are ready to harness the inherent ability of citizens to imagine and achieve a better future.

For more information, see http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_rfp

The Call for Proposals is now open for the 12th Annual Meeting of the National Outreach Scholarship Conference. This year’s event is hosted by Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan on October 2-4, 2011.

The Theme for 2011:
Engaged Scholarship and Evidence-Based Practice

FIVE TRACKS WILL EXPLORE:

* Methods and Practices of Community-Based Research and Creative Activities

* Translational Science and the Diffusion of Innovation

* Globalization and International Engagement

* Technologies as Tools for Engagement

* Leadership and Professional Development for Engaged Scholarship

For more information: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=vnfh5neab&v=001lnBTEkB9iIGJiQ4svWKc35mi7sDPlwdTb8CPLeG-B40Qm051PBaoy9v7HlDb_K9EjhO2Vg3HMgMJULJthcAbyDYUjygipE4-qxFhToH7fi3jc86FkQ8-15W303AmsWsz-jhaosPzMEAbeDTE7Eu9lshNJyn-Pfttq8tYjNQDZlSKTwZWtZaFK6uK-d88sW8fUTFUqaaOotSs3QFSRMpYwY_DQ_pKGqero9HuINNfmEkQUxYre664U29QoyQbzUKtPcL5gQTSiWwm5igN_NfjLGsHMxFppQudWrT_eGp8a6foBeHLVPp7-uaVt4edqrEqwQD0h8cbmWhsWaLQY1ESNqQeYLOK-u_bfAmYmz92Wm5MXTk2AUaJXQ%3D%3D

The Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute and the Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan are announcing a “Call for Proposals” for pilot studies to determine the feasibility for an Integrated Assessment (IA) of a major issue regarding climate and/or water and their impact on health inequities in an international setting. The pilot-study grants, which are for up to $20,000 each for one year, are available to instructional faculty and research scientists who meet the criteria of a U-M Principal Investigator. Funded projects must be completed by December 31, 2011. The deadline to apply is November 15, 2010.

Following the completion of the pilot studies, some grantees will be encouraged to submit fully developed proposals from which the Graham Institute and the Center for Global Health will select a limited number to support at approximately $100,000-$150,000 per year over two to three years.

For more information: http://www.graham.umich.edu/forms/IntIAProposal.php

BACKGROUND

An efficient and robust freight transportation system is essential to the continued economic well-being of the United States. One vital segment of the system is the deep-water ocean port, which, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration, handled 25 million loaded import or export containers in 2009. Both the highway and rail systems at deep-water ocean ports are congested in peak periods, as few were designed to handle current container volumes, much less future growth. Various projections show a doubling of containers by 2030, and this has led to a call for more freight infrastructure capacity. However, port expansion and cargo growth depends, to a large degree, on community acceptance, which in turn depends on reducing current adverse impacts from container transportation and mitigating future impacts.

As a result, communities around the ports have called for alternative ways to move containers, especially ways that are perceived to be more environmentally friendly than diesel, or approaches that lessen highway congestion by separating freight transport from passenger transport. However, many have questioned whether some of the proposed alternatives are technically feasible, and if so, can they serve multi-site networks and mesh with the legacy port, highway, and rail operations?

Research is needed to develop an objective methodology that compares the various alternatives to transport ocean containers to and from port terminals that is unbiased, provides equitable benefit/cost measurement factors (including port efficiency), and considers the entire container drayage scenario, from or to an inland location up to 100 miles distant from the deep-water ocean port.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a systematic methodology that can be used to evaluate alternatives for ocean container transport to or from deep-water ocean ports and inland destinations within 100 miles.

For more information: http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2922

BACKGROUND

IntelliDrive (SM) is a multimodal initiative that aims to enable safe, interoperable networked wireless communications among vehicles, the infrastructure, and passengers’ personal communications devices. IntelliDrive research is being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) and others to leverage the potentially transformative capabilities of wireless technology to make surface transportation safer, smarter, and greener. If successfully deployed, the U.S. DOT maintains that IntelliDrive will ultimately enhance the safety, mobility, and quality of life of all Americans, while helping to reduce the environmental impact of surface transportation.

IntelliDrive is being developed through coordinated research, testing, demonstration, and deployment. The federal research investment is targeted to areas that are unlikely to be accomplished through private investment because they are too risky or complex. Other stakeholders, including the states, the automotive industry and its suppliers, and consumer electronics companies, also are researching and testing IntelliDrive technologies and applications (i.e., the specific tasks being addressed by the technology, for example, transit priority at traffic signals) so that the transportation community can realize the full potential and vision of IntelliDrive.

The IntelliDrive program is a major initiative of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Programs Office (JPO) at the U.S. DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). The ITS JPO’s goal is to advance the program to a deployment readiness state by 2014. In order for state transportation departments to fully benefit from this effort, AASHTO has formed an IntelliDrive technical working group that developed a strategic plan and action plan for the development and deployment of IntelliDrive. A pooled fund program has been established to begin work on the plan. A need identified in the plan that has not yet been addressed is to evaluate and document the benefits and costs of IntelliDrive investment.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this research are to evaluate and document agency and societal benefits and costs of IntelliDrive to assist with deployment decisions by state and local DOTs.

For more information: http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2951