Transportation Research Implementation: Application of Research Outcomes. Summary of the Second EU-U.S. Transportation Research Symposium

This document provides a summary of the entire content of the Second EU-U.S. Transportation Research Symposium held April 10–11, 2014, in Paris, France. The summary is organized by symposium session or breakout session with a concluding section that synthesizes the suggestions that emerged from the symposium. The purpose of the Second EU-U.S. Transportation Research Symposium was to promote cooperation across the Atlantic and share best practices for the implementation of research outcomes in the field of surface transportation at the local, state, national, and international levels. The symposium was divided into five sessions that featured a total of 29 presentations and extensive question-and-answer sessions to cover the context of the issue, stakeholder perspectives, institutional incentives for implementation, research for implementation, and the bridge between principles and practice. The symposium format included two cycles of breakout group discussions that tapped into the combined expertise of the group to consider key questions. The symposium opened with two presentations of commissioned white papers that gave an overview of the hypotheses about successful transportation research and discussed 13 case studies of successfully implemented research. The text of both papers is included in the appendixes to these conference proceedings. Throughout the symposium, participants provided suggestions for making research more deployable and for breaking down barriers to implementing innovation in transportation systems. Some suggestions focused on research methods, researcher incentives, and more systematic tracking of research and research outcomes. Other suggestions emphasized the need for greater involvement of all stakeholders, better communications between researchers and stakeholders, and opportunities to improve research efficiency via joint projects. The participants also identified some systemic obstacles that could be mitigated to accelerate the adoption of research.