There are a number of key enablers and barriers to the formation of international collaborations in the field of transportation research. A review of the literature on scientific collaborations suggests that a flexible, distributed model of research and development involving loose networks of researchers and entrepreneurs holds the most promise for taking advantage of key enablers, while avoiding the traditional barriers to international collaboration. Two types of frameworks that embody the tenants of the flexible, distributed model are presented in the paper. The first is embodied within the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed by the Transportation Research Board and the European Council of Transport Research Institutes. The second framework is borrowed from the Federal Highway Administration's Next Generation SIMulation Program (NGSIM). The NGSIM program relies heavily on downstream market incentives (rather than cradle to grave government funding) to develop and deploy innovative traffic simulation models. In the NGSIM model, collaborations are ultimately market driven. (a).
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