California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This study is presented in three related papers.  The first develops a structurefor making decisions regarding Caltrans/PATH research.  It describes aresearch cycle in which real world needs and opportunities fed into a processby which research priorities are set, proposals invited, and  projects areselected.  These research projects ultimately provide information that can beused for further research or for implementation.  Implementation changessociety and technology and leads to new needs and opportunities, which inturn feed into the research process.   The second paper develops and describesthe process by which proposals are evaluated.  The third paper describes howthe products of research and implementation have been analyzed,summarized, and presented to researchers, potential implementers, and otherdecision makers via the Internet, thus supporting their decisions regardingfurther research and implementation and thereby moving research results intopractice.