The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is accepting proposals through May 10 for the Transit IDEA Program, which supports the development and testing of innovative concepts and methods for advancing transit practice. The Transit IDEA Program is funded by FTA as part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), a cooperative effort of FTA, TRB, and APTA.

IDEA stands for Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis. The program provides funds of up to $100,000 at an early stage of the development process for promising but unproven innovative concepts or methods.

TRB particularly suggests proposals that address any of these high-priority focus areas: improving public transit safety or security, improving transit capital or operating efficiencies, increasing ridership, or protecting the environment and promoting energy independence.
The program announcement, which includes instructions for preparing and submitting IDEA proposals, is available here. 
More information is available from Harvey Berlin.