CCAT Funding Opportunity (RFP)
Document Links
The proposal due date for 2024 has now passed, and the next issue date is projected for October 2025. As CCAT continues to advance research in connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies, future funding opportunities will be announced in alignment with ongoing developments and research priorities. More information regarding the upcoming issue date and key milestones will be shared as it becomes available.
Total Available Federal Funding: TBD
Issue Date: TBD – Announces around October 2025
Proposal Due Date: TBD
For questions, please contact Henry Liu (CCAT Director) and Debby Bezzina (CCAT Managing Director)
Overview of CCAT
The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in partnership with Central State University, Purdue University, University of Akron, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Washtenaw Community College, established the USDOT Region 5 University Transportation Center (UTC): Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT) in 2016 under the funding support from the FACT ACT. In 2023, CCAT was renewed under the support from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), with an expanded consortium adding Northwestern University, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The statutory research priority area that CCAT addresses is Promoting Safety. Under BIL, CCAT is USDOT’s designated UTC “focusing its efforts in the field of comprehensive transportation safety, congestion, connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles, including the cybersecurity implications of technologies relating to connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles”.
CCAT Vision: Provide regional and national leadership in connected and automated transportation system research, education, and training.
CCAT Mission: Significantly advance the evolution of the U.S. next-generation transportation systems with connected and automated vehicles and infrastructure.
CCAT invites proposals from the community of researchers within the partner institutions. CCAT seeks both fundamental and applied research proposals that align with the CCAT mission. CCAT particularly values proposals with demonstrable outcomes or significant impacts on the field or the state-of-the-practice. This year, CCAT is soliciting two types of projects. First, one-year projects that have a smaller, yet tangible scope that will produce directed and noteworthy results. Second, multi-year IMPACT projects. Impact projects will have a larger scope and are expected to have more far-reaching results. An impact project will require a 10-month progress report that will be reviewed and evaluated by a special committee to determine continued funding. Impact projects are encouraged to be collaborations between consortium members.
Additionally, CCAT encourages researchers to utilize the Mcity 2.0, a remote-accessible mixed reality test facility designed for connected and automated vehicles and infrastructure. Mcity 2.0 is funded by the National Science Foundation and will provide funding for researchers to use the test facility. For information regarding the research use cases supported by Mcity and how to make the request to use the facility, please visit: https://mcity.umich.edu/what-we-do/mcity-test-facility/mcity-2/.