To help guide the state’s future transportation research investments, the Minnesota Department of Transportation recently completed a five-year comprehensive strategic plan that looks at streamlining the research governance structure at MnDOT and developing a clearinghouse of information about the agency’s research portfolio to improve decision-making.

MnDOT Research Services, which administers the bulk of the state’s transportation research projects, recently completed a visioning session with agency stakeholders as the first step in implementing the recommendations of the strategic plan, which include:

• Establishing agency-wide research strategic priorities
• Tracking all of MnDOT’s research expenditures, including those performed outside Research Services
• Tracking research investment levels to measure return on investment
• Reporting on the outcomes of research projects beyond their life cycle
• Identifying the value and impact of research at a topic and program level

In addition to the approximately 175 state, local and multi-state transportation research projects administered and tracked by MnDOT Research Services, several MnDOT specialty offices also invest in their own research to support or guide their work.