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FAA Centers of Excellence
20.109
Conduct long term research in critical and specific areas of aviation related technology. Responsibilities of Centers may include, but are not limited to: the conduct of research concerning catastrophic failure of aircraft; airspace and airport planning and design; airport capacity enhancement techniques; human performance in the air transportation environment; aviation safety and security; the supply of trained air transportation personnel including pilots and mechanics; and other aviation issues pertinent to developing and maintaining a safe and efficient air transportation system, and the interpretation, publication, and dissemination of the results of such research.
This chart shows obligations for the program by fiscal year. All data for this chart was provided by the
administering agency and sourced from SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, and Treasury.gov.
For more information on each of these data sources, please see the
About the data page.
In FY 2016, the FAA COE Program Office anticipates to award $22,500,000 in support of FAA projects. The FAA will complete plans to establish a Center of Excellence for the Air Traffic Organization in 2016. A Public Meeting was held, Draft and Final Solicitations were posted, proposals were received, and Technical and Management/Fiscal Evaluations have been completed. Announcement of the selected team is planned for June 2016. The FAA COE Program Office will negotiate cooperative agreements with member universities in FY 2016. In FY 2016, the FAA COE Program Management Office (PMO) awarded $28,397,118 in support of 160 FAA projects, negotiated and executed 16 COE cooperative agreements, issued 225 funded grant awards, executed 66 other COE actions, and generated more than $29 million in matching contributions from industry and other non-federal sources.
Additionally, the FAA COE PMO conducted and completed a competition to establish the COE for Technical Training and Human Performance (TTHP) and finalized significant pre-award activities and the award of 65 awards in preparation for the establishment of the new COE in September 2016. The pre-award competitive process culminated in the submission of proposals representing universities throughout the U.S. and their industry and other affiliates. The COE PMO invited subject-matter-experts from various federal organizations to participate in the conduct of a technical evaluation of the submissions. Management and fiscal officers were additionally invited to conduct a review of the best qualified proposals from a non-technical perspective. The process enabled the FAA Administrator to select the new COE TTHP team in FY 2016, on schedule as planned. The COE PMO negotiated and entered into 16 new cooperative agreements with the COE core universities.
In FY 2017, the FAA COE PMO anticipates to award $24,600,000 in support of FAA projects. The FAA COE PMO will continue to support active Centers. The follow-on strategy for the Joint Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials (JAMS) will be formulated. JAMS will continue to fulfill research requirements until the FAA Administrator concurs with a follow-on strategy.
During FY 2018, FAA supported six active COE public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions and their industry and other affiliates. Upon approval from the Secretary of Transportation, the FAA COE Program Management Office (PMO) awarded 61 grant awards for over $11.8 million during FY 2018. The grants were awarded to 24 core universities in support of 40 projects and generated more than $12 million in matching contributions from industry and other nonfederal sources
During FY 2019, FAA supported six active COE public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions and their industry and other affiliates. Upon approval from the Secretary of Transportation, the FAA COE PMO expects to award 155 grants for $24.4M. The anticipated awards will be to 38 core universities in support of 135 projects and will generate more than $24.4 million in matching contributions from industry and other nonfederal sources.
During FY 2020, FAA supported six active COE public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions and their industry and other affiliates. Upon approval from the Secretary of Transportation, the FAA COE PMO expects to award 192 grants for $67M. The anticipated awards will be to 48 core universities in support of 123 projects and will generate more than $67 million in matching contributions from industry and other nonfederal sources.
During Fiscal Year 2021, FAA has six active COE public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions and their industry and other affiliates. Upon approval from the Secretary of Transportation, the FAA COE PMO expects to award 142 grants for $56M. The anticipated awards will be to 48 core universities and will generate matching contributions from industry and other nonfederal sources.
During Fiscal Year 2022, FAA has six active COE public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions and their industry and other affiliates. Success stories include: Through the University of Oklahoma and FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance (COE TTHP) delivered critical research entitled “Characterization and Application of Air Traffic Controllers Visual Search Patterns and Control Strategies for Efficient and Effective Training”. In partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Air Force Research Laboratory, Wichita State University National Institute for Aviation Research (WSU-NIAR) conducted a program under the FAA Joint Advanced Materials & Structures Center of Excellence (JAMS) to qualify an additively manufactured material.
During Fiscal Year 2023, FAA’s five active COE’s with public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions other affiliates successfully performed research for a wide range of topic areas.
The FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment, also known as the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT), is paving the way for sustainable aviation through its innovative research program. ASCENT now includes over 80 projects covering critical issues in aviation including emissions, noise, operations, aircraft technologies, and supersonics. ASCENT research continues to advance the area of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a topic of growing importance. ASCENT researchers play key roles in the development and deployment of SAF, working to test and certify fuels to ensure both safety and sustainability. ASCENT Project 31 established the ASTM D4054 Clearinghouse, a centralized resource for fuel producers going through the fuel qualification process. The Clearinghouse coordinates testing and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) review of new fuels. To date, seven pathways are annexed under D7566. The most recent pathway was the first Fast Track approval, requiring only 50 gallons of fuel compared to earlier approvals that used over half a million gallons of fuel. Two additional co-processing pathways are annexed under ASTM D1655: Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuels. Other ASCENT projects continue to advance fuel approval, focusing on improving fuel testing methods to lessen the burden of fuel approval from both time and cost perspectives.
The FAA Center of Excellence for General Aviation’s Project 29 was featured in a FAA-led publication (www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing). There also was an article written about the same project on the following aviation website (https://medium.com/faa/making-it-count-c2e78a40c782). The project covers “How Aircraft Transponder Signals Take the Guesswork Out of Counting Non-Towered Airport Operations”. The research proved to be a winning concept that generates cost-effective, accurate, and detailed operations counts. A transportation data services company called Quality Counts has already bought the license for this novel technology and has a product. Looking ahead, the data collection continues. Further research involves refining the overall process to ensure the greatest possible accuracy in the count registration, including a means to gather more data, such as aircraft type. This information can provide additional insight to airport managers about the fleet mix of aircraft operating at their airports.
The FAA Joint Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials (JAMS) created the First Public Database for Additive Manufacturing. Additive manufacturing (AM) presents significant opportunities for several applications to produce parts with low lead times and close to the point of use. AM has not been fully realized due to high manufacturing variability, uncertainty of the performance effects of material defects, and the lack of pedigreed data and widely-accepted methodologies/standards for qualifying materials and processes. In partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Air Force Research Laboratory, Wichita State University National Institute for Aviation Research (WSU-NIAR) conducted a program under the FAA Joint Advanced Materials & Structures Center of Excellence (JAMS) to qualify an additively manufactured material. Through this program, WSU-NIAR also partnered with America Makes to form a team from rp+m (a small business in Ohio), Stratasys, and Lockheed Martin. This team then solidified a partnership with the National Center for Advanced Material Performance (NCAMP) at WSU-NIAR. NCAMP works closely with the FAA, DoD, and aerospace industry to qualify material systems and provide material and process (M&P) specifications and performance data to the aerospace community. A government steering committee and industry technical advisory team of aviation OEMs supported the program.
Through the University of Oklahoma and FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance (COE TTHP) delivered critical research entitled “Characterization and Application of Air Traffic Controllers Visual Search Patterns and Control Strategies for Efficient and Effective Training”. The goal of this work was to understand how experienced controllers visually search, select, compare, and control multiple aircraft under different situations to develop concrete training examples of visual scanning and aircraft control strategies related to enroute conflict detection and resolution. Five dominant visual search patterns were discovered: spiral, circular, linear, quadrant, and mixed. Other diverse strategies were discovered based on factors such as conflict types, sector characteristics, and customer service priorities.
During Fiscal Year 2024, FAA’s five active COE’s with public-private partnerships throughout the United States with academic institutions other affiliates successfully performed research for a wide range of topic areas.
The FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment, also known as the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT), continues to pave the way for sustainable aviation through its innovative research program. ASCENT now includes over 80 projects covering critical issues in aviation including emissions, noise, operations, aircraft technologies, and supersonics. ASCENT research continues to advance the area of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a topic of growing importance. ASCENT researchers play key roles in the development and deployment of SAF, working to test and certify fuels to ensure both safety and sustainability. The Clearinghouse coordinates testing and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) review of new fuels.
The FAA Center of Excellence for General Aviation continues to enhance general aviation safety, accessibility, and sustainability by partnering the FAA with a national network of world-class researchers, educators and industry leaders. The program accomplished a successful PEGASAS annual meeting this year, which provided an opportunity for the PEGASAS researchers to share their research with invited attendees, to receive feedback from the FAA and the Advisory Board, to recognize outstanding research staff and students, and to network with each other to foster continued collaboration. The PEGASAS 2024 Annual Meeting was located at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ on Jun 11-12, 2024. PEGASAS researchers shared project updates with their project sponsors and FAA colleagues, students from all PEGASAS universities held poster sessions, and the Advisory Board provided valuable feedback on the research progress and future direction.
The FAA Joint Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials (JAMS) created the First Public Database for Additive Manufacturing. Additive manufacturing (AM) presents significant opportunities for several applications to produce parts with low lead times and close to the point of use. AM has not been fully realized due to high manufacturing variability, uncertainty of the performance effects of material defects, and the lack of pedigreed data and widely-accepted methodologies/standards for qualifying materials and processes. In partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Air Force Research Laboratory, Wichita State University National Institute for Aviation Research (WSU-NIAR) conducted a program under the FAA Joint Advanced Materials & Structures Center of Excellence (JAMS) to qualify an additively manufactured material. Through this program, WSU-NIAR also partnered with America Makes to form a team from rp+m (a small business in Ohio), Stratasys, and Lockheed Martin. This team then solidified a partnership with the National Center for Advanced Material Performance (NCAMP) at WSU-NIAR. NCAMP works closely with the FAA, DoD, and aerospace industry to qualify material systems and provide material and process (M&P) specifications and performance data to the aerospace community. A government steering committee and industry technical advisory team of aviation OEMs supported the program.
Through the University of Oklahoma and FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance (COE TTHP) delivered critical research entitled “Characterization and Application of Air Traffic Controllers Visual Search Patterns and Control Strategies for Efficient and Effective Training”. The goal of this work was to understand how experienced controllers visually search, select, compare, and control multiple aircraft under different situations to develop concrete training examples of visual scanning and aircraft control strategies related to enroute conflict detection and resolution. Five dominant visual search patterns were discovered: spiral, circular, linear, quadrant, and mixed. Other diverse strategies were discovered based on factors such as conflict types, sector characteristics, and customer service priorities.
The Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems continues to provide high-quality research and support to autonomy stakeholders both within the US and beyond to safely and efficiently integrate autonomous systems into the national and international infrastructure, thereby increasing commerce and overall public safety and benefit. This year marks 10-years of focusing on UAS airworthiness and certification, detect and avoid (DAA) technologies, human factors in UAS operations, UAS traffic management (UTM) and integration with manned aircraft, and risk assessment and management for UAS operations. In addition, ASSURE leads to research in many arenas such as disaster prep, recovery, multi-aircraft control, cybersecurity, autonomy a
Single Audit Applies (2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F):
For additional information on single audit requirements for this program, review the current Compliance Supplement.
OMB is working with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and agency offices of inspectors general to include links to relevant oversight reports. This section will be updated once this information is made available.
