ISTVS supported collaborative research proposals due July 31st, 2025 - Submit a two-page proposal now!

Dear ISTVS Members,

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As approved by the ISTVS Board of Directors at its November 25, 2024, meeting, we are pleased to announce that we are launching a new ISTVS Research Grants solicitation. This follows the initial Research Grant award, which ran from 2016 to 2019, leading to an update of the ISTVS Standards, with publication of a peer-reviewed paper titled Updated standards of the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems in the Journal of Terramechanics in 2020 [1].

The objectives of the ISTVS Research Grants Program, as established back in 2014, are to encourage:

Interaction among our members
International collaboration
Progress toward ISTVS goals
Active participation from our young members
Raising the profile of ISTVS towards being viewed as the leading authority in terrain-vehicle interaction, in off-road mobility science, and in terramechanics.

2025 call for proposals

The ISTVS Board of Directors (BOD) invites researchers to apply for funding to support research & development activities where members will make a contribution in areas important to the domain of terrain-vehicle systems and terramechanics. Funding provided under the Small Research Grants program of ISTVS is not meant to cover the complete cost of a research project, but to be complementary to already existing funding of the proposers. The awarded funding under the program should be used to facilitate collaboration between multiple institutions such that real, tangible progress can be made on the chosen topic for the benefit of ISTVS.

All investigators must be active ISTVS members.

Up to two awards may be made under this solicitation, provided that proposals of sufficiently good quality are received.

In its 2024 deliberations, the BOD identified the topic of the all-terrain tire as warranting an overhaul in its treatment. The all-terrain tire has therefore been selected as the subject matter of the current solicitation.

The term “tire”, in this context, refers to traditional pneumatic tires used on earth (i.e. planetary rover wheels, solid rubber wheels and metal wheels, whether rigid or flexible, are excluded). Whereas all-terrain tires have been widely used across different use cases and domains and producers abound, it is the view of the ISTVS BOD that a systematic and ground-up approach as to the modeling, design, and characterization is overdue.

In particular, the following activities under grants awarded by ISTVS in the present solicitation are encouraged:

Revisit and formulate best practices in all-terrain tire design
Collate modeling approaches, test results, operations & maintenance experiences
Compile methods for modeling and measurement of the tire-terrain contact, specifically methods and testing processes of tire-to-terrain contact area and volume
Recommend approaches for specification and selection

It is suggested that two different speed ranges of off-road mobility be considered in the all-terrain tire subject:

All-terrain tires for low speed off-road operations (such as for agricultural tractors)
All-terrain tires for high speed off-road operations (military wheeled vehicles and haulers)

If development or procurement of a tire specimen, such as a Standard Reference Test Tire (SRTT), can be included in the proposed work scope, this would be considered an asset.

This call for proposals is advertised on the ISTVS website and in the ISTVS newsletter.

Proposal action dates:

Two-page proposals are due by email to the ISTVS General Secretary, Massimo Martelli, by July 31, 2025, via email submission to gs@istvs.org.

The evaluation committee will make recommendations for funding to the Board of Directors by September 30, 2025, and the award will be announced during this year’s 55th ISTVS conference that will be held October 6-9, 2025, in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.

The proposal guidelines and background information are included below and are also posted on our ISTVS Awards page.

Each funded project will be assigned a Project Technical Adviser (PTA) by the ISTVS BOD on the recommendation of the Evaluation Committee. The PTA will be responsible for the technical evaluation of results according to the proposal and to act as a contact point between the ISTVS BOD and the granted institution/individual.

The initial project duration will be one year.

Requests for renewal/extension of proposals can be submitted for years 2 and 3 by the end of year 1 of the project funding.

Proposal guidelines

Keep the proposal short and concise (2 pages). A one-page bio for each principal investigator (PI) must be attached as an appendix. The bio should highlight work of interest to ISTVS and note service and involvement to the organization. Both Full and Student members are eligible as PIs.

Contents of the proposal

Goal/scope of the proposal.
Significance of the work proposed for ISTVS (both technically and in terms of professional training/education of future generations).
Work proposed (clear tasks identified with expected outcomes and deliverables for each).
Project development/management (where will the work be conducted, who does what, travel planned, etc.).
Funding requested and how it will be spent.
Project durations of 1 to 3 years will be considered. Details must be provided for year 1, with estimates for subsequent years. Funding for years 2 and 3 will depend on recommendations by the PTA and Evaluation Committee and approval by the BOD. The deliverables should include at least one ISTVS conference paper presentation or poster, and/or one Journal of Terramechanics publication, unless otherwise agreed upon.
Proposals are estimated to be in the range of 1000 to 5000 USD per year, although this is only indicative.

[1] He, R., Sandu, C., Mousavi, H., Shenvi, M.N., Braun, K., Kruger, R. and Els, P.S., 2020. Updated standards of the International Society for Terrain-vehicle Systems. Journal of Terramechanics, 91, pp.185-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jterra.2020.06.007