Technological progress and research findings alone are insufficient for moving research into practice. Instead, lasting success hinges on building social capital—the networks, trust, and shared values among all stakeholders. At the 2025 CTS Transportation Research Conference luncheon, University of Minnesota (UMN) Research Development Office Executive Director Robert Hampshire drew on his experiences at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to address the critical challenge of implementing transportation research.
“We need to increase … our shared values not just within this community but with the partners we work with,” Hampshire asserted. “We need to be much more embedded into the transportation system and the adjacent ecosystems to truly have the impact we desire.”
This focus is driven by the high stakes of safety: while the USDOT has adopted a Safe System Approach that defines zero deaths as the only acceptable number, society still shows a “toleration for roadway fatalities,” he said.
To demonstrate social capital’s power, Hampshire shared the example of a near-disaster in 2021 when all U.S. flights were about to be grounded just before the holidays. The fear was that the new 5G C-band wireless service would interfere with aircraft altimeters. The core conflict, Hampshire explained, was a “clash of cultures” between the aviation and telecommunications industries, rooted in a lack of trust and shared language. To overcome this challenge, research and technology were used to build common ground—researchers even went on airplane flights to measure interference firsthand.
“The joint effort to … create a shared understanding about safety and build trust allowed us to avert this pending disaster, and the social capital that was developed during this process is still benefiting us,” he said.
This collaborative spirit was equally vital for the successful comeback of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. Just four years ago, the safety technology was considered virtually dead because of policy inertia and concerns over privacy and relevance.
To revitalize V2X, the USDOT team championed the motto “Deploy now, not later” and convened thousands of stakeholders—including industry representatives, researchers, and policymakers—to deepen relationships. The key wasn’t a better technical argument, but the successful effort to “craft a better story” focusing on V2X’s life-saving potential, Hampshire said.
Today, major federal funding initiatives enable researchers and academics to facilitate collaboration and contribute to creating social capital. Examples include the USDOT’s SMART Grants Program, which allocates millions to communities to lead technology deployment, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure, which funds mission-driven prize competitions for transformative solutions.
As head of research development, Hampshire is focused on helping the University’s Research & Innovation Office build critical webs of connection. “This is an opportunity to take on some of those big research challenges and help researchers not only go after the grants but also realize their vision of impact, which often takes time and large interdisciplinary community partnerships,” he concluded.
This powerful call to action sets the perfect stage for CTS as it looks toward its 40th anniversary. As CTS Director Kyle Shelton noted following Hampshire’s address, the Center’s upcoming theme for 2026—“CTS at 40: Driving Innovation, Accelerating Discovery, and Fueling Talent”—is dedicated to exploring the impact of university-based research and how centers can collaborate with practitioners and agencies to implement their work. The anniversary is not just a celebration of four decades of discovery—it’s a renewal of the mandate to build the shared values and networks necessary to ensure that academic insights transform transportation safety and efficiency nationwide.
—Megan Tsai, contributing writer
