FY26 Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (Rail Safety IDEA)

The Federal Railroad Administration is seeking to fund the National Academy of Sciences to continue administering the FY26 Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis program. The program is designed to investigate and explore promising but unproven concepts, methods, and technologies that improve the safety and performance of railroads. Eligible projects must be entirely railroad-related and are initiated and proposed by researchers, inventors, universities, or companies from both within and outside the traditional transportation research community. This discretionary grant opportunity is limited exclusively to the National Academy of Sciences, which will administer the program through its Transportation Research Board. Applications must be submitted by July 20, 2026, for a single award with an estimated total program funding and award ceiling of $500,000.