About University Transportation Centers

The University Transportation Centers (UTC) program, initiated in 1987 under the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act, authorized the establishment and operation of transportation centers in each of the 10 standard federal regions. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) reauthorized the UTCs for an additional six years and added four national centers and six University Research institutes (URI). The mission of the 14 UTCs was to advance U.S. expertise and technology transfer. The six URIs each had a specific transportation research and development mandate.

In 1998 the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) reauthorized the UTC Program for an additional six years and increased the total number of Centers to 33. In addition to the ten regional Centers, which were to be selected competitively, TEA-21 created 23 other Centers at institutions named in the Act. TEA-21 established education as one of the primary objectives of a University Transportation Center and institutionalized the use of strategic planning in university grant management.

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), enacted on July 6, 2012, authorized up to $72.5 million per year from Federal FY2013-2014 funds for grants to establish and operate up to 35 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) throughout the United States.  Under MAP-21, all of these UTC grants, including the Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities were competitively selected during 2013.

Refer to the US DOT website for information about the 2013 UTC Competitive Selections.