RAISE Discretionary Grants Program - Planning

Federal Agency

Sub-Department

Office of Infrastructure Finance and Innovation

Purpose

To support planning, preparation, or design— for example environmental analysis, feasibility studies, and other preconstruction activities—of eligible surface transportation capital projects. This can also support the development of master plans, comprehensive plans, corridor plans, and/or risk assessments.

Applicant and/or Project Eligibility Requirements

Eligible applicants include State, local, Tribal, and U.S. territories' governments, including transit agencies, port authorities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and other political subdivisions of State or local governments. Multiple States or jurisdictions may submit a joint application and should identify a lead applicant as the primary point of contact and also identify the primary recipient of the award.

Decarbonization Considerations

RAISE planning grants can help communities accelerate their climate action plans and prioritize new and enhanced multi-modal connections, transit hub upgrades, and new transit corridors altogether can help reduce dependence on private vehicles, and in turn, emissions. Consider which transportation-related climate action priorities are most transformative and use this funding to initiate planning, design, and community engagement to advance key local projects.

Equity Considerations

This is an opportunity address both procedural equity in the planning process as well as distributional equity in terms of access to transportation networks. RAISE planning grants can help accelerate efforts to support areas of persistent poverty.

Helpful Tips

There is no minium award amount for planning grants. To evaluate the induced Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and emissions impacts of highways, check RMI's SHIFT calculator for more information: https://shift.rmi.org.

Other Notes

The RAISE program was previously known as DOT's TIGER and BUILD programs. Those programs have been directly replaced by RAISE. See 2024 awards here: https://www.transportation.gov/policy-initiatives/raise/raise-2024-awards