WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced today that it is accepting applications for the third year of its Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program. The SMART Grants Program was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021. As part of the President’s Investing in America agenda, the program will fund up to $500 million in grants over five years to conduct demonstration projects focused on advanced smart community technologies and systems that improve transportation safety and efficiency. In the first two rounds of SMART Grants, USDOT selected 93 projects in 39 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, totaling $148 million.

“The SMART Grant program has helped communities, states, and tribes across America deploy new kinds of transportation technology solutions to improve safety and resilience,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “As the program enters its third year of funding, we’re excited for even more communities to get funding and support to develop technological solutions to their most pressing transportation challenges.”

Through this SMART Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), USDOT will accept applications for Stage 1 Planning and Prototyping grants. During Stage 1, the SMART program will fund technology demonstrations and prototypes that solve real-world transportation problems and build data and technology capacity for State, local, and Tribal governments. Later this year, recipients of Stage 1 grants will be eligible to expand their projects through the first of several Stage 2 grant opportunities.

The funding opportunity is open to public sector entities seeking to carry out transportation projects that demonstrate at least one of the following technology areas:

lCoordinated automation

lConnected vehicles

lSensors

lSystems integration

lDelivery/logistics

lInnovative aviation

lSmart grid

lTraffic signals