The 713 International Road Federation (IRF) has opened its 2011 Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) Competition. This competition was first established by the IRF in 2000, and is intended to recognise surface transport projects, accomplishments, and technologies that demonstrate excellence and innovation. Since inception, more than 80 organisations from two dozen countries have been recognised for their advances in transportation development worldwide. The competition is open to all public and private sector organisations involved in the industry. Entries are open to projects and technologies that may have been recognised in other award programmes, provided they have not been recognised in an IRF Global Road Achievement Award competition during any previous year. However unsuccessful applications can be re-submitted for re-consideration. This year, the IRF is accepting awards submissions in 12 categories: advocacy; construction methodology; design; environmental mitigation; innovative finance; maintenance management; programme management; research; safety; technology, equipment and manufacturing; traffic management and intelligent transport systems (ITS); quality management.