TheNational ITS Implementation Research Center is a consortium of Virginia’s three research universities – George Mason, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech. The universities complement each other’s research strengths:

George Mason in institutional issues,

George Mason University is home to nationally recognized scholarship in the area of public policy.  Since 1991,George Mason has carried out extensive research on ITS institutional issues and produced reports on ITS evaluation, finance, traveler information needs, standards and protocols, and traffic modeling.

The University of Virginia in systems development and integration,

The University of Virginia provides state, national, and international leadership in transportation research and education, including ITS.  The Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) operates, in co-sponsorship with the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC), the Smart Travel Lab which receives real-time traffic information from throughout the state.

Virginia Tech in the application of specific technologies.

Virginia Tech's programs are nationally prominent in ITS safety and human factors, and traffic engineering and modeling. Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute has provided significant leadership in developing the Smart Highway ITS test road in Southwest Virginia; has been involved in both interstate and intrastate ITS corridor studies; and has done pioneering work in such enabling ITS technologies as fiber optics.

The Center has two advisory groups -- the Policy Advisory Board, which provides guidance on the overall direction of the Center, and the Research Advisory Board, which provides guidance on research themes and individual research projects.