The US Department of Transportation announced that the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST), housed at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), would receive $20 million to lead a group of seven universities studying transportation effects on the environment.

The funding was granted as part of the Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Center (UTC) program, which is awarding up to $435 million in grant awards for 34 UTCs. (Earlier post.) This year’s grant competition included a total of 230 applications, representing the largest number of applications ever submitted in the 35-year history of the UTC Program. The NCST is one of only five national transportation centers awarded under the UTC program, and the only one focused on the DOT research priority of Preserving the Environment.

The NCST’s $20-million grant ($4 million per year over 5 years) will allow researchers at UC Davis and other consortium member universities to focus on accelerating equitable decarbonization that benefits both the transportation system and the well-being of people in overburdened and historically disadvantaged communities. Research activities will concentrate in three domains: vehicle technology; infrastructure provision; and reshaping travel demand to accelerate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The new grant also enables the NCST to expand its consortium. Texas Southern University joins the original members of the NCST consortium: California State University Long Beach, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California Riverside, University of Southern California, and University of Vermont.

This round of funding marks the second time UC Davis has been able to renew its status as the host of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation.