Purpose

To give consistency in how we track our projects, this policy describes how research-related projects and final reports are numbered. This policy encompass all projects that the Research Program tracks, including SPR-funded research projects and quick response projects, pilots and pilot evaluations, in-house research, and other projects the Research Program is made aware of.

Policy

All numbering starts with a year and is then numbered sequentially throughout that year for activities in that category. Projects and final reports are differentiated by the number of digits in the year at the start of the number - 2 digits indicates a project, 4 digits indicates a report.

This numbering scheme is in addition to other programmatic tracking linked to financial systems (federal aid project numbers, DC project numbers, contract and/or task order numbers, and purchase orders) and will allow for tracking of projects over their lifecycle. This numbering will also ease tracking of projects that do not have financial system numbers (e.g. a pilot done in partnership with another entity) as well as those still in the development stage, before other numbering schemes are applied.

Where projects are managed by other entities (e.g. Pooled Fund projects), the Research Program will follow the numbering scheme of those programs in lieu of this internal policy.

Project Numbering

The Research Program tracks a number of different projects. All projects (except those managed by other entities) will use the scheme of YY-[project type]##. In general, the numbers are assigned when a project is sufficiently advanced for tracking to commence. Numbers increase sequentially within the project types.

Project Type	YY	Type Code	##	Example	When is the number assigned?
Research Projects	the fiscal year they are first selected/budgeted	R	the order by which they were ranked for selection	21-R01	Numbers are assigned as part of the work program development.
Quick Response Projects	the fiscal year they are funded	QR	the order they are undertaken or identified	21-QR01	Numbers are assigned during work program development if the project is known, but otherwise as identified during the fiscal year.
Pilots	the fiscal year they are identified (whenever we start tracking)	P	the order they are undertaken or identified	21-P01	Numbers are assigned as pilots are advanced from pitch to pilot preparation and added to the pilot tracking table (see /wiki/spaces/RL0208/pages/2045280320)

Pooled Funds project follow the FHWA Pooled Fund numbering system, or host state/city numbering scheme. E.g. TPF-5(440)

Final Report Numbering

Final reports are numbered based on the fiscal year they are published (4 digit) + the order in which they complete that year (2 digit). E.g. 2021-01 would be the first final report published in fiscal year 2021 (regardless of what year the project began or type of project).