About ACRP

Each year, ACRP receives funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ACRP's program sponsor. With this budget, ACRP funds research projects and activities to help airports surmount real-world challenges and problems.

ACRP's governing board, the ACRP Oversight Committee (AOC), meets annually to identify the highest priority projects, define project funding levels, and articulate expected research products. It ensures that each approved project is appropriate, relevant, and responsive to airports’ needs. In addition, ACRP engages airport professionals, state and local government officials, equipment and service suppliers, other airport users, and research organizations so that their perspectives are represented during the research selection process.

Once the AOC releases its approved list of projects, ACRP convenes project panels to steer the development of RFPs, oversee the subsequent competitive selection of research contractors, and manage and approve the final research products.

ACRP follows a cyclical, transparent, and participatory process to select its research projects summarized in the six steps below.

1. Generate Research Ideas and Problem Statements. Throughout the year, industry practitioners submit research ideas and problem statements via ACRP’s Problem Statement Submission form which can be found on our Problem Statement Submission page.


2. Select Problem Statements. Each spring, the AOC reviews and selects problem statements that are most responsive and best serve the airport industry’s needs.


3. Nominate Panels. Once the list of problem statements has been published, usually by mid-summer, ACRP convenes project panels. Practitioners may nominate themselves or peers to serve on panels, or ACRP may solicit nominations from individuals with appropriate and relevant expertise and who represent the intended users of the research products. Panelists serve voluntarily (without compensation) and provide technical guidance and counsel to ACRP and its researchers throughout the life of the project.


4. Convene Panels. ACRP convenes panels in the fall to review the selected problem statements and transform them into a request for proposals (RFP).


5. Evaluate RFPs. Project panels evaluate proposals from research contractors on technical merit and consider the following:
   • The proposer's demonstrated understanding of the problem
   • The merit of the proposed research approach and experiment design
   • Experience, qualifications, and objectivity of the proposer in the same or closely related areas
   • The plan for promoting application of results
   • The plan for participation of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises--small firms owned and controlled by minorities or women
   • The adequacy of the proposer's facilities


6. Select a Research Contractor. Based on the panel's input, ACRP selects a winning contractor to conduct the research.

Every ACRP research project culminates in a research product, which may take one of the forms below:

Publications, including:

• ACRP Synthesis
• Legal Research Digests
• Research Reports
• Research Results Digest

Digital products, including:

• Web-Only Documents
• WebResources

All of ACRP's research publications are available online through the National Academies Press and may be downloaded free of charge. Digital products are also free to all users.

To request additional information on ACRP, email or call:

Marci A. Greenberger, Manager
Airport Cooperative Research Program
Transportation Research Board

(202) 334-1371
MGreenberger@nas.edu