An ad hoc committee will (1) organize a national summit to explore effective strategies for addressing major research challenges in transportation, and (2) produce a report that will examine ways of implementing a new and more cohesive national transportation research framework and explore ways of funding its programs. The summit will convene leaders from transportation and transportation RD&T, as well as representatives from outside the traditional transportation research community. It will explore opportunities to strengthen U.S. transportation research in support of national goals by establishing a more holistic approach to problem solving and by building greater connectivity among researchers and research activities and will include in its scope transportation research funded by all federal agencies, states, and the private sector. For the purposes of this project, a research framework is defined as the social, political, and organizational structures within which research is funded and the processes by which it is conducted, including setting priorities; distributing funding; conducting, coordinating, and evaluating R&D; and implementing the results of R&D.