Member Benefits
As they have in the past, STEPS+ Research Consortium Sponsors will continue to enjoy the benefits listed below and will further benefit from research in all the STEPS+ Research Centers. In addition, each Research Center will host a minimum of two members-only conferences per year (in addition to two annual STEPS+ symposia), offering “deep dive” access into the Center’s full research portfolio.
1. Interaction Plan
At the beginning of each program year, and at the sponsor’s request, we coordinate a customized engagement plan with your organization’s key contacts to ensure maximum value from your contribution. We also check in periodically throughout the year to understand your most pressing research interests and needs, and we host periodic meetings with you to present and discuss our most recent research insights.
2. STEPS+ Research Symposia
Each year two invitation-only events are held on the latest research related to critical industry planning and government policy topics.
3. Job Fair
Meet and greet our students, the future experts in transportation and energy, and chat about their research during our Poster Session.
4. “Deep Dive” Workshop
Invitation-only deep-dive workshops Research Workshop.
5. Advisory Board Membership
Sponsors will designate a person as advisor member to both the umbrella organization STEPS+ and the focus STEPS+ program boards. The boards meet a minimum of once a year to receive an update on our latest research and advise our leadership on the program’s research and direction.
6. Early access to Briefings, Reports and Webinars
Researchers produce publications, and issue working papers and reports over the course of the program. Sponsors get preliminary access to our research before it is published and receive emailed research briefings, webinars, highlights of current research findings, events and upcoming activities.
7. Public Process Activities
Special public process events are periodically held, including briefings and webinars for policymakers, their staff, and the general public. STEPS+ Sponsors are encouraged to attend and participate in these events.
8. Focused Requests and Campus Visits
STEPS+ is pleased to accommodate special Sponsor requests for interaction on specific topics and to host visits that facilitate interactions related to these requests.
9. Internships, Extended Sponsor Visits, and Employment
STEPS+ is pleased to support student internships at Sponsor locations, host extended visits by Sponsors at ITS-Davis, send research leaders to visit Sponsors, and help prepare STEPS+ students for careers with our Sponsor and partner organizations.
10. Sponsor Portal in our website
Sponsors get full password protected access to materials of conferences and workshops.
Sponsor Responsibilities
We ask that Sponsors designate an Advisory Board Member to serve on the STEPS+ Advisory Board as well as an Advisory Committee Member to serve on 3RFM, to provide research and strategic direction to the program leadership. We also ask that Sponsors designate at least one Primary Contact for the STEPS+ Consortium as well as at least one Primary Contact for the 3RFM to enable orchestration of STEPS research dissemination within the Sponsor organization. STEPS+ research can be valuable to multiple functions within an organization, including strategic planning, government relations, and advanced vehicle, fuel and other technical divisions. In summary, members are asked to designate three 3RFM contacts:
1. A Primary Contact
The primary contact serves as the member organization’s designee for day-to-day issues and helps identify other contacts within the organization who should receive 3RFM information. 3RFM research and consortium contacts can be valuable to multiple functions within an organization, including strategic planning, government relations, and advanced vehicle, fuel and other technical divisions. To ensure that program benefits reach the best member contacts, the Primary Contact is asked to provide the name, title, research interests and email address of those people that 3RFM should include in its communications. In addition, ITS-Davis welcomes the integration of members’ expertise into our studies. Often, organizations wish to provide data that helps inform 3RFM research. Organizations can also arrange to have visiting researchers spend time with 3RFM researchers on the UC Davis campus. Typically, this comes from a strong mutual interest in a certain aspect of the 3RFM research agenda, and we welcome these types of interactions with Sponsors and outside experts.
2. An Advisory Board Member to the 3RFM board
The BoA Member is typically a more senior manager at the Sponsoring organization to participate in our annual BoA meeting.
3. An Advisory Board Member to the STEPS+ board
Typically a more senior manager at the Sponsoring organization to participate in our annual BoA meeting.
In some cases the Primary Contact, 3RFM Advisory Board Member and STEPS+Advisory Board Member are the same person.