PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (KBTX) -Prairie View A&M University has been selected as the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to lead a competitively awarded national-tier University Transportation Center by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The National Center for Infrastructure Transformation at Prairie View will focus on improving the durability and extending the life of transportation infrastructure through its research, education, and technology transfer programs.

Prairie View A&M University will lead the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation as part of a consortium that includes several members of The Texas A&M University System, including Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. Other partnering institutions include Arizona State University, Michigan State University, Rutgers University, and Blinn College.

During a special ceremony Monday at the Willie A Tempton, Sr. Memorial Student Center on the campus of Prairie View A&M Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp announced the $2.5 million commitment from A&M System.

Chancellor Sharp says the investment made by the Texas A&M University System is a sign of the trust that the system has in the leadership of Prairie View A&M University and its partnership with the A&M System.

“This historic first for Prairie View A&M University shows the power of its partnership with the A&M System, which made this success possible,” said Sharp. “Prairie View A&M University’s alliance with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Texas A&M University is an example of how this kind of collaboration makes it possible for us to compete against the best research institutions in the country and win.”

The National Center for Infrastructure Transformation at Prairie View will receive $4 million per year for the next five years and is one of only five awarded national-tier centers. Its focus will be on practical research to improve the durability and resilience of the nation’s transportation infrastructure for the next century. The Texas A&M System’s contribution will support the administration of NCIT, as well as its programs in education and technology transfer, freeing up more assets to pursue research in better ways to design, construct, and maintain transportation infrastructure.

“Today I stand before you as one of five center directors responsible for leading a national university transportation center for the next five years. The newly awarded National Transportation Center to Prairie View A&M University is unequivocally a historic achievement. Per my discussion with the Office of Sponsor program, this is the largest competitive award that Prairie View has received. So how did this occur? It was through the invisible but divine hands that brought all the right people together to develop a proposal document built on three key elements, and they were innovation, intentional, and unique. Innovation. Given the infrastructure, investment, and job acts, historic investment in American infrastructure, we would have to be about the business of describing how we would change and lead change regarding the statutory research priority to improve the durability at extending the life of the trans transportation infrastructure intentional, the message had to be clear to anyone reading the document that our commitment to leading change was deliberate regarding the projects and programs listed under the categories of research, education and workforce development and technology transfer and collaboration.”