FY26 Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (Rail Safety IDEA)

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is providing funding for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to continue the Rail Safety IDEA program. This program explores innovative concepts and methods to improve the safety and performance of railroads. The program is open to researchers, inventors, universities, and companies, and all projects funded by this grant must be railroad-related. The key aspects of this opportunity include: • The program aims to investigate promising but unproven concepts with the potential to advance specific surface transportation systems. • The FRA has been providing funding for the Safety IDEA program since October 2002. • The Rail Safety IDEA program has been completely independent and separate from the FMCSA since 2013. • The National Academy of Sciences is the only entity eligible to apply. • The estimated funding for this grant is $500,000.