Research and Innovative Technology Administration
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | February 22, 2005 |
| Jurisdiction | United States Government |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | US Department of Transportation |
| Website | Research and Innovative Technology Administration Website |
The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) is a unit of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). It was created in 2005 to advance transportation science, technology, and analysis, and to improve the coordination of transportation research within the Department and throughout the transportation community.
RITA performs four basic functions:
RITA has over 750 employees in Washington, at the Volpe Center (Cambridge, MA), and at the Transportation Safety Institute (Oklahoma City, OK).
RITA was created by the Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Program Improvement Act, and opened its doors on February 22, 2005. RITA’s formation was part of a Department-wide reorganization to create one agency solely focused on promoting transportation research. In a report titled Research Activities of the Department of Transportation: A Report to Congress, then-Transportation Secretary Mineta promoted his vision for RITA as “A DOT administration that combines research-driven innovation and entrepreneurship to ensure a safe and robust transportation network.”
The new agency was formed from several existing parts of USDOT:
RITA is led by two presidential appointees. Within RITA there are several program offices, which report directly to the Administrator. Those offices are:
RITA’s Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T) office’s mission is to coordinate research across all modes of transportation and to promote advanced innovative transportation solutions. RD&T coordinates a research planning council, a planning team, and several research clusters that are dedicated to certain multimodal research subjects. The planning council ensures crossmodal collaboration and coordination in research being done with DOT and its partners, and advises the Secretary of Transportation on research issues. The planning team supports the council by reviewing and coordinating departmental research plans and budgets, assessing research, and promoting best practices in research performance and technology transfer.
The University Transportation Centers Program funds transportation research at 136 colleges and universities and helps advance the education and training needed to support a 21st Century transportation system. Research and education programs provided by UTCs address critical national transportation challenges while developing the next generation of transportation professionals. UTC colleges and universities trained 32,000 practicing transportation professionals in 2009.
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