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U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Discretionary Safety Grants and Cooperative Agreements

Federal program · program number 20.614 (the federal Assistance Listing number) · also called “NHTSA Section 403 Discretionary Grants and Cooperative Agreements”

Key facts

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1 grant
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1 grant
Type of help
Cooperative agreement (a grant with close agency involvement), project grant
Typical award
The range and average of financial assistance for these grants are $650,000 - $2,500,000.

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What it pays for

Provide technical and financial assistance to State and local government agencies, for-profit and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, hospitals, and other persons (as defined in Title 1 USC Chapter (1)) in support of highway safety research and development, special studies, educational and public awareness projects related to or involving: 1). Activities, including demonstration projects to study vehicle, highway, driver, passenger, motorcyclist, bicyclist, and pedestrian characteristics; 2). Emergency medical services communications and transportation of the injured; 3). Human behavioral factors such as driver education, impaired driving, and distracted driving; 4). Evaluation of the effectiveness of countermeasures to increase highway and traffic safety, including occupant protection and alcohol- and drug-impaired driving technologies and initiatives; 5). Development of technologies to detect drug impaired drivers; 6). Research, evaluation, and identification of best practices related to driver education programs (including driver education curricula, instructor training and certification, program administration, and delivery mechanisms) and recommendations for harmonizing driver education and multistage graduated licensing systems; 7). Effect of State laws on any aspects, activities, or programs described above.

Who can apply

Eligibility requirements will be specified on a project-by-project basis. Generally speaking, and historically, projects have been made available to the following types of organizations: Intrastate, Local, Sponsored Organization, Public nonprofit institution/organization, Other public institution/organization, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government, U.S. territory or possession, Specialized Group, Small Business, Profit Organization, Private nonprofit institution/organization, Quasi-public nonprofit institution/organization, Other private institution/organization, Native American Organization,

How applications are judged

Grantee criteria for selecting proposals will be developed on an on individual grant or cooperative agreement basis by the NHTSA Program and Acquisition Team.

Match

None required (federal program listing).

Who in Tennessee has won this program

4 awards to Tennessee groups since 2022. Largest shown:

Past Tennessee winners
Past winnerWhereAmountFiscal year
Safety & Homeland SecurityNashville, Davidson County$4.3M2025
Safety & Homeland SecurityNashville, Davidson County$1.1M2022
State of TennesseeNashville$235K spent that year2025
Shelby County, TNMemphis$37K spent that year2023

Source: USAspending.gov, Federal Audit Clearinghouse.

Tennessee groups that got this money through a state agency or another organization

This federal money also reaches local groups as pass-through grants. In Tennessee, Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and Tennessee Department of Transportation pass it on: watch those agencies for applications, not the federal agency. 3 pass-through grants on file. Largest shown:

Tennessee pass-through grant winners
Past winnerWhereThroughAmountFiscal year
State of TennesseeNashvilleNational Safety Council$98K spent that year2025
City of ClevelandCleveland, Bradley CountyTennessee Department of Transportation$62K spent that year2025
City of Murfreesboro, TennesseeMurfreesboro, Rutherford CountyTennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security$9,979 spent that year2023

Source: USAspending.gov pass-through reports (the first recipient reports each one of $30,000 or more).

Official program listing (SAM.gov)