Tribal Transportation Safety Strategy Pilot Program

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology is launching a three-year cooperative agreement under the Tribal Transportation Safety Strategy Pilot Program to tackle the severe public safety emergency in American Indian and Alaska Native communities, where traffic fatalities occur at more than twice the national rate. The selected applicant will be responsible for conducting research to identify innovative solutions and develop a next-generation strategic safety plan tailored to Tribal needs, including a comprehensive toolkit of training resources, analysis tools designed for use where historical crash data is limited, and risk-based safety planning guidelines. The project will conclude with a pilot implementation in at least one federally recognized Tribal community with a high traffic fatality rate, featuring a temporary, low-cost safety infrastructure demonstration to test and validate the proposed strategies. The solicitation, identified as TRIBALSAFETY-OSTR24, was posted on June 30, 2026, with a submission deadline of August 28, 2026, and is open to applicants seeking federal funding through this cooperative agreement. The program is administered by the Department of Transportation’s Research and Technology office, with point of contact information provided for inquiries through Special Projects Manager Kelley C. Severns. The place of performance is not specified, reflecting the nationwide and Tribal-specific nature of the initiative, and there is no set-aside designated for specific entities, allowing eligible organizations to compete without restrictions. The goal is to create scalable, culturally appropriate safety interventions that can be replicated across Tribal nations facing similar transportation safety challenges.