TRB's mission is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through research. The Intermodal Freight Transport Committee supports this goal by identifying freight research needs and coordinating the dissemination of intermodal freight research among committee members, TRB, and outside groups. The committee prepares research problem statements and ideas, reviews papers submitted for TRB annual meetings, and identifies sessions and speakers for TRB and other meetings.

One vehicle by which the Intermodal Fraight Transport Committee disseminates research ideas is The National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP). NCFRP was authorized with the passage of SAFETEA-LU in 2005. The NCFRP is sponsored by the US Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and managed by the National Academies, acting through its Transportation Research Board (TRB), with program governance provided by an Oversight Committee including a representative cross section of freight stakeholders. This program was born out of the efforts of TRB committees and task forces to bring freight into the spotlight. Many of the problem statements originating in the Intermodal Freight Transport committee are now topics for NCFRP contracts.

Another mechanism for the dissemination of freight related research ideas is the TRB Research Needs Statements database. Also through TRB, the Intermodal Freight Transport Committee sponsors an annual Call For Papers (CFP) to be submitted to and presented at the Annual Meeting. The 2011 annual meeting CFP may be viewed at: http://pressamp.trb.org/CallForPapers/CFPDetail.asp?cid=1217.