USDOT Awards Grant to Mississippi State University - University of Denver Led Consortium

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $3.5 million to Mississippi State University and University of Denver-led consortium with the theme of Intermodal Transportation for Economic Competitiveness. The center will be named the National Center for Intermodal Transportation for Economic Competitiveness (NCITEC) and will work to promote the development of an integrated, economically competitive, efficient, safe, secure and sustainable national intermodal transportation network by integrating all transportation modes both for freight and passenger mobility.

Building on the successful partnership of Mississippi State University and the University of Denver through NCIT (National Center for Intermodal Transportation), the consortium members represent a diverse group of universities, including

The new center and its members will serve the transportation industry through research, education, workforce development and technology transfer activities. Areas of expertise include intermodal planning, safety and security, public policy, workforce development and economic competitiveness. The NCITEC will focus on the economics, assessment, design and development of planning methodologies, operational tools, technology and human resources needed to improve intermodal connectivity, capacity and to reduce congestion in our nation’s transportation system. The NCITEC will also seek to improve the capacity and capability of the workforce to meet the challenges of the increasingly complex passenger and freight transportation system.

Congestion, competition, capacity,and conservation are the major challenges facing the U.S. transportation system that can be met with the adoption of a serious commitment to intermodalism. The intermodal point-of-view involves looking at how individual modes can be connected, governed, and managed as a fully integrated and sustainable transportation system. The fundamental objective of intermodalism is not to optimize a single mode of transportation but to integrate the multiple modes into an optimal, sustainable and economic system. 

NCIT Director Patrick Sherry, PhD, noted that: “The competition included 46 proposals from universities around the country; of those, 10 were selected because of the importance of their theme and the combined team of experts from a group of five, top-tier universities.”

In addition, Professor Sherry said that the University of Denver’s endeavor was competitive in two centers, as the University of Denver will also join the Region 8 Consortium under North Dakota State University, located in Fargo, North Dakota. Region 8 consists of a consortium of universities from North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Montana.