Broad Agency Announcement 2013-1

The FRA’s Office of Research and Development is charged with conducting research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy. These activities support the objectives of the US DOT, the mission critical needs of the FRA, and the rail industry as a whole, through technology development and demonstration, basic and applied research, and information exchange with the rail industry.

The purpose of this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is to solicit a variety of basic and applied technology research projects that will support the strategic objectives of Office of Research and Development and the research needs of the four FRA research divisions:

Track
Rolling Stock and Equipment
Train Control and Communications
Human Factors

Projects shall be focused on technology development that can be used to achieve safe and efficient freight and passenger rail operations in the US. Such technologies will:

Reduce the operational and program deployment risks associated with mixed use rail lines;
Improve safety by reducing human and technology failures;
Bring about capital cost reductions and economy in producing equipment and facilities;
Reduce operating costs of rail service by providing more efficient operations;
Improve the reliability of equipment and infrastructure components by reducing failures and/or reducing false failure detections;
Enhance the social benefits and/or environmental aspects of rail transportation; and
Facilitate the development of domestic manufacture of rail equipment and infrastructure components.