Writing Your Proposal

NCHRP research proposals are typically two to three pages long, and contain the following information:

• Title
• Background/needs statement (one to three paragraphs)
• Literature search summary
• Statement of the project’s objective (one or two sentences)
• Funding and time needed for the research
• List of anticipated work tasks
• Statement of urgency, timeliness, and/or pay-off potential (why the research needs to be done now and/or how the research will benefit the DOTs)
• Name and contact information of person submitting the research proposal
• Name and contact information of person who will monitor the research for the committee

Information that is strongly encouraged is a review of similar research, and how this project fits in with what has already been done or is underway. This literature review may be conducted by doing keyword searches on the Transportation Research Information Services database (http://ntlsearch.bts.gov/tris/) and the Research in Progress database (http://rip.trb.org/).
In addition, submissions should adhere to the following guidelines to ensure that they are not delayed from consideration:

• Proposals must be submitted to NCHRP by a Standing Committee or Subcommittee.  Therefore, technical committees, task forces, etc., must submit their NCHRP research proposals to their parent Subcommittee for review prior to the deadline for research submittals. 
• Proposals must be endorsed by the chair of the committee or subcommittee that submits it.

Proposals should follow the basic format outlined in the “NCHRP Proposal Format”

To help get you started, click on the following link to see the several sample NCHRP research proposals