The North Texas Center for Mobility Technologies establishes a community-driven approach to supporting the mobility, talent and research needs of industry, government, municipalities, and transportation agencies in North Texas. NTCMT, led by the Texas Research Alliance (TRA) in partnership with the University of North Texas(UNT), The University of Texas at Arlington(UTA), The University of Texas at Dallas(UTD), and Southern Methodist University(SMU)(anticipated)is seed-funded by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)and the Universities so that accepted research projects sponsored by private firms and other sponsors are match-funded by both the Universities and NCTCOG. These highly leveraged-research opportunities allow project sponsors to easily work with specialized research teams assembled from among the faculties of the universities while having to negotiate their projects with only the lead university.

This approach allows sponsors to access a readymade R&D network for mobility and transportation-related challenges as well as support the continuing development of university capability in mobility and transportation-related faculty, students, and programs. A key NTCMT goal is to make North Texas a more attractive place for transportation-related companies to locate because of the talent pool and research network that the NTCMT facilitates.

Sponsored research may come from outside of the transportation sector. For example, companies in DFW’s robust defense manufacturing sector regularly work in areas such as AI, 5G, UAS, and vehicle autonomy that have direct transportation applications. The NTCMT anticipates that the defense sector will sponsor some NTCMT projects.