TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) is soliciting nominees to serve on oversight panels for new projects being established under the NCHRP's FY 2014 program. Nominees should have expertise directly relevant to the proposed project topic. To help identify nominees who are members of historically underrepresented groups, TRB encourages the nomination of women and members of minority groups.

Panels for the new projects are scheduled to meet beginning in late July through September. Panel members are prohibited from submitting or participating in preparation of proposals on projects under their jurisdiction, and they serve without compensation but are paid travel and subsistence expenses.

Although the FY 2014 projects are tentative (they have not yet been approved by a states' ballot), TRB is soliciting nominees now in order to meet future deadlines and would appreciate receiving nominations as soon as possible but not later than June 21, 2013. Individual descriptions of each new project are available online.

To ensure proper consideration when making nominations, TRB needs as many details as possible on a nominee's affiliation, title, address, and, most importantly, technical areas of competence related to the particular problem (a brief resume would be helpful). TRB also encourages submittals via e-mail to Ms. Adrienne Blackwell at ablackwell@nas.edu. Please make sure that only business-related addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail contacts are provided. Please use the nomination form (available electronically in pdf or word format) if a resume is not available. Contacts to determine an individual's interest in serving will be made from NCHRP after TRB has matched available expertise with that required by the project.

Travel insurance is provided at no cost to the members. In many cases, only two meetings are held during the life of a project, and these usually take place in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the first meeting is to develop a project statement that is used to solicit proposals; the second meeting is to select a research agency from among those submitting proposals. Other meetings may be dictated by project circumstances; however, they are few and usually at least a year apart.

Membership on each panel will number approximately eight, and panels operate under the guidance of a permanent chairman.  Additional details on the functions of an NCHRP panel are available online. The NCHRP staff serves as the secretariat.

NCHRP is grateful for your support. With nominees continuing to outnumber the available positions by about four to one, we have been able to establish panels that are outstanding in their ability to play a fundamental role in the accomplishment of successful research. If your nominee is not selected, please understand that there are a number of factors considered in forming well-balanced and objective panels. Although expertise is the primary factor, an attempt is made to achieve appropriate balance in terms of geographic areas, organization or agency types, and gender and ethnic diversity.