The FMCSA Office of Research and Technology (R & T) recently presented its 4th Annual Forum entitled FMCSA Research & Technology: Synergy in Partnerships, in conjunction with the Transportation Research Boards 83rd Annual Meeting. The Forum provided insights from toplevel speakers and two sets of panelists on how public-private partnerships that involve government, academia, and industry work toward common transportation safety goals.

Mary Powers-King, FMCSA's R & T Director, started the Forum with a warm welcome to an audience of approximately 150 attendees. She introduced John Hill, FMCSA's Chief Safety Officer, who gave the opening remarks. He stressed the importance of government, industry, and publicprivate partnerships as a way to make our roads and commercial vehicles safer and to keep commerce and freight moving.

In his keynote address, Acting Administrator of Research and Special Programs Administration, Samuel Bonasso, gave his viewpoints on what he called "a topic dear to my heart"public-private partnerships. Mr. Bonasso noted that no single research entity possesses all of the required resources to meet all of its strategic goals and that partnerships are critical to expanding one's capabilities and resource pool.

Brigham A. McCown, FMCSA's Chief Counsel, reviewed the permissible arrangements the government can have with third parties and the process that must be followed to do so. He also talked about the many ways in which the U.S. government can potentially partner with outside entities and the Standards of Ethical Conduct that apply to Federal employees in these partnerships.

Mary Powers-King (above upper
right), Samuel Bonasso (above left),
and John Hill (above right) extend a
warm welcome to the attendees of
the R&T 4th Annual Forum.

Martin Walker, FMCSA's Research Division Chief, introduced the first panel and served as the moderator for the panel. This panel included Jeff Secrist (Office of Research and Technology) discussing CVISN Deployment, Sandra Zywokarte (Office of Bus and Truck Standards and Operations) discussing Driver Physical Qualification Requirements, Debbie Freund (Office of Bus and Truck Standards and Operations) discussing the Sensors Study, Ralph Craft (Office of Information Management) presenting Fatigue Management, and Jeff Loftus (Office of Research and Technology) discussing the merits of a Roadside Testing Feasibility Study.

The second panel was introduced by Doug McKelvey, FMCSA's Technology Division Chief. Mr. McKelvey also served as moderator for this panel, which consisted of Greg Larson with California DOT representing the public sector, Ellison Wittels, MD from the medical industry, Tom Dingus of Virginia Tech Transportation Institute representing academia, Alex Guariento of Greyhound representing the private sector, and Robert Clarke of the Truck Manufacturers Association representing associations. Their presentations focused on the opportunities that arise from their perspective and experience when the public and private sectors come together to take advantage of the natural synergies that exist between them. For more information on the panelists or the R&T Forum please contact Albert Alvarez at 202-385-2387 (TTY 1-800-877-8339).

The panelists presented a variety of topics to approximately 150 people in attendance.