The program for the "Summit on Transforming Transportation: Economies and Communities" will combine high-level plenary sessions with focused, collaborative working sessions, an open poster session, opportunities for sharing work, and local social and cultural visits in Detroit.

The summit is hosted by the Transforming Transportation Research Corridor Consortium comprising Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan, in partnership with Michigan-based representatives from all sectors. The consortium was established to help understand and advance transportation's role within the profoundly shifting contexts of the transportation industry, the economy, and communities.

Transforming transportation requires fundamental realignment of an industry and a culture that has served in the past as the basis of state and local economies, according to summit organizers. Transportation industries have supported generations of workers and characterized the core identity of many communities and regions, particularly in Michigan. As these industries, technologies, and cultures change, leaders from all sectors will need a systematic, multidisciplinary program of applied research that can provide evidence-based insights and strategies to address these profound changes and inform policy and practice on into the future.

A key outcome of the summit will be to advance applied research, starting with a cross-discipline, cross-sector "Research and Action Agenda for the Transformation of Transportation in Michigan and Beyond." Attendees will work together in focused and collaborative settings that are conducive to identifying key research and action questions and opportunities. City and community leaders, business leaders, and entrepreneurs will bring their challenges and innovations, along with ideas about the data and conceptual frameworks that could support the advancement of their transformational efforts. Research scholars will bring their knowledge, networks, and analytical tools as well as some ideas about how to apply them to understanding and addressing these transportation-related challenges and opportunities.

More information is available at bit.ly/TTRCC11.