On March 15th, 2024, Newlab hosted a key ARPA-I National Listening Tour Workshop in our Detroit location. This event brought together transportation infrastructure innovators across the Midwest from government, industry, academia, and advocacy to focus on setting priorities for the newly formed ARPA-I. Modeled after DARPA and ARPA-E, ARPA-I (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Infrastructure) aims to make transportation in the U.S. safer, more secure, more efficient, and more resilient, supporting net-zero emissions by 2050 and enhancing accessibility to clean mobility.

The ARPA-I Listening Tour aims to align ARPA-I’s initiatives with the goals of transportation and infrastructure R&D community members. During the ARPA-I Listening Tour workshop at Newlab Detroit, participants engaged in collaborative exercises to refine the nation’s biggest transportation infrastructure opportunities that could be solved by ARPA-I programs and began to ideate solutions, focusing on technologies and systems. Key topics included reducing infrastructure costs, lowering environmental impacts, and ensuring infrastructure resilience.

The workshop at Newlab marks an important step in ARPA-I's journey, emphasizing collaboration across sectors to identify and tackle the nation’s pressing transportation issues.