FTA Announces $1.94 Million for Research to Improve the Rider Experience

7/1/2024

FTA has announced $1.94 million in competitive funding through its Enhancing Mobility Innovation program to support research conducted by providers of public transportation. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is intended to advance emerging technologies, strategies, and innovations that make transit easier and more accessible.

FTA will allocate funding to support rider-centered research projects in two categories:

  • Innovations that focus on new service delivery models, creative financing, novel partnerships, and integrated payment solutions; and
  • Software solutions that improve ways to provide demand-response public transportation service.

“The Enhancing Mobility Innovation program supports transit agencies as they work to strengthen mobility, with a focus on how innovation can improve service delivery and make trains, buses and ferries easier to use and more attractive to riders,” said FTA Acting Administrator Veronica Vanterpool.“This funding will help spur innovation so that people can get to their destinations more reliably, comfortably, and conveniently.”

Eligible applicants include transit agencies; state or local departments of transportation; Indian tribes; private and nonprofit organizations; colleges and universities; and state and local governments, including metropolitan planning organizations.

Instructions for applying and eligibility information can be found on FTA’s website and at GRANTS.GOV (solicitation FTA-2024-010-TRI- EMI). Complete proposals must be submitted electronically through the GRANTS.GOV “APPLY” function by Aug. 30.