Notice2022-08581
Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 22, 2022
Issuing agencies
National Science Foundation
Abstract
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has submitted the following information collection requirement to OMB for review and clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This is the second notice for public comment; the first was published in the Federal Register and no comments were received. NSF is forwarding the proposed renewal submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance simultaneously with the publication of this second notice.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 78 (Friday, April 22, 2022)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 78 (Friday, April 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24203-24205]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08581]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request
AGENCY: National Science Foundation.
ACTION: Submission for OMB review; comment request.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has submitted the
following information collection requirement to OMB for review and
clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This is the second
notice for public comment; the first was published in the Federal
Register and no comments were received. NSF is forwarding the proposed
renewal submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
clearance simultaneously with the publication of this second notice.
DATES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of
this notice to <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAmain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAmain</a>. Find this particular
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance
Officer, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue,
Alexandria, VA 22314, or send email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c0b3b0aca9adb0b4af80aeb3a6eea7afb6"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6e1d1e0207031e1a012e001d0840090118">[email protected]</span></a>. Individuals
who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the
Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, which is
accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (including
federal holidays). Comments regarding this information collection are
best assured of having their full effect if received within 30 days of
this notification. Copies of the submission(s) may be obtained by
calling 703-292-7556.
NSF may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless
the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control
number, and the agency informs potential persons who are to respond to
the collection of information that such persons are not required to
respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently
valid OMB control number.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Program Monitoring Data Collections for the
National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program.
OMB Number: 3145-NEW.
Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to establish an
information collection for post-award output and outcome monitoring
system.
Abstract: The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps
(I-Corps) Program was started in 2011 to develop and nurture a national
innovation ecosystem built upon fundamental research that guides the
output of scientific and engineering discoveries closer to the
development of technologies, products, and services that benefit
society.
The goal of the I-Corps Program is to use experiential education to
help entrepreneurial researchers reduce the time necessary to translate
promising ideas from the laboratory bench to widespread implementation.
In addition to accelerating technology translation, the NSF I-Corps
program also seeks to reduce the risk associated with technology
development conducted without insight into industry requirements and
challenges.
The NSF I-Corps Program is designed to support the
commercialization of ``deep technologies,'' those revolving around
fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. The program
addresses the skill and knowledge gaps associated with the
transformation of basic research into deep technology ventures. The
program enables entrepreneurial researchers in deep technologies to
receive support in the form of entrepreneurial education, industry
mentoring, and funding to accelerate the translation of knowledge
derived from fundamental research into emerging products and services
that may attract subsequent third-party funding. I-Corps training and
infrastructure together represent an important investment for NSF and
the Nation, as directed by the American Innovation and Competitiveness
Act (AICA), Public Law 114-329, Section 601.
These selected researchers form teams and participate in the I-
Corps Teams Program Curriculum. An I-Corps team includes the
Entrepreneurial Lead (EL), Technical Lead (TL) or the Principal
Investigator (PI), and the Industrial Mentor (IM). During the training
program, the team is expected to spend significant time conducting
active customer discovery, including interviewing potential customers
and potential partners. The outcomes of I-Corps Teams projects will be
threefold: (1) A decision on a clear path forward based on an
assessment of the business model, (2) substantial first-hand evidence
for or against product-market fit, with the identification of customer
segments and corresponding value propositions, and (3) a narrative of a
compelling technology demonstration for potential partners.
The NSF I-Corps program requests the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approval of this clearance that will allow the programs to
improve the rigor of our surveys for evaluations and
[[Page 24204]]
program monitoring, as well as to initiate new data collections to
monitor the immediate, intermediate, and long-term outcomes of our
investments by periodically surveying the I-Corps teams and their
members. The clearance will allow the program to rigorously develop,
test, and implement survey instruments and methodologies.
The primary objective of this clearance is to allow the NSF I-Corps
program to collect characteristics, inputs, outputs, and outcomes
information from the I-Corps teams funded by the program. This
collection will enable the evaluation of the impacts on the four themes
as outlined in the FY 2021 NSF I-Corps biennial report to Congress:
1. Training an Entrepreneurial Workforce
2. Translating Technologies
3. Nurturing an Innovation Ecosystem
4. Enabling Economic Impact
The second, related objective is to improve our questionnaires and/
or data collection procedures through pilot tests and other survey
methods used in these activities. Under this clearance a variety of
surveys could be pre-tested, modified, and used.
Following standard OMB requirements, NSF will submit to OMB an
individual request for each survey project we undertake under this
clearance. NSF will request OMB approval in advance and provide OMB
with a copy of the questionnaire and materials describing the project.
Data collected will be used for planning, management, evaluation,
and audit purposes. Summaries of output and outcome monitoring data are
used to respond to queries from Congress, the public, NSF's external
merit reviewers who serve as advisors, including Committees of Visitors
(COVs), NSF's Office of the Inspector General, and other pertinent
stakeholders. These data are needed for effective administration,
program monitoring, evaluation, outreach/marketing roadmaps, and for
strategic reviews and measuring attainment of NSF's program and
strategic goals, as identified by the President's Accountable
Government Initiative, the Government Performance and Results Act
Modernization Act of 2010, Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, and
NSF's Strategic Plan.
All questions asked in the data collection are questions that are
NOT included in the annual, final or outcomes reports, and the
intention is to ask the grantees even beyond the period of performance
on voluntary basis in order to capture impacts of the research that
occur during and beyond the life of the award.
Grantees will be invited to submit information on a periodic basis
to support the management of the NSF I-Corps investment portfolio. Once
the survey tool is tested, grantees will be invited to submit these
indicators to NSF via data collection methods that include, but are not
limited to, online surveys, interviews, focus groups, phone interviews,
etc. These indicators are both quantitative and descriptive and may
include, for example, the characteristics of project personnel, sources
of funding and support, knowledge transfer and technology translation
activities, patents, licenses, publications, descriptions of
significant advances, and other outcomes of the funded efforts.
Use of the Information
The data collected will be used for NSF internal and external
reports, historical data, program level studies and evaluations, and
for securing future funding for the maintenance and growth of the NSF
I-Corps program. Evaluation designs could make use of metadata
associated with the award and other characteristics to identify a
comparison group to evaluate the impact of the program funding and
other relevant research questions.
Estimate of Public Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual number
Collection title Number of respondents of responses/ Annual hour
respondent burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Program Monitoring Data Collections for the 400 I-Corps Teams (1,200 program 3 900
National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation participants) per year.
Corps (I-Corps) Program.
5 I-Corps Hubs (1,200 program 3 900
participants) per year.
--------------------------------
Total.................................... 2,400 participants.............. ............... 1,800
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For life-of-award monitoring, the data collection burden to awardees
will be limited to no more than 15 minutes of the respondents' time in
each instance.
Respondents
The respondents are consisted of Technical Lead (TL) of the I-Corps
Project or Principal Investigator (PI) of NSF I-Corps Program awards,
Entrepreneurial Lead (EL), and Industry Mentor (IM).
Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents for the Hour Burdens
The overall annualized cost to the respondents is estimated to be
$30,000.
The following table shows the annualized estimate of costs to PIs
or TLs/ELs/IMs respondents.
The annualized estimate of cost to both the PIs/TLs and IMs, who
are generally University Professors, is calculated using the hourly
rate based on a report from the American Association of University
Professors, ``Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession,
2020-21,'' Academe, March-April 2021, Survey Report Table 1. According
to this report, the average salary of an assistant professor across all
types of doctoral-granting institutions (public, private-independent,
religiously affiliated) was $91,408. When divided by the number of
standard annual work hours (2,080), this calculates to approximately
$44 per hour. Similarly, the annualized estimate of costs to the ELs,
who are generally graduate students, can be calculated using the data
published in the 2017 Science magazine article that a typical annual
stipend for graduate students in the sciences is around $25,000. When
divided by the number of standard annual work hours (2,080), this
calculates to approximately $12 per hour.
[[Page 24205]]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Burden hours Average hourly Estimated
Respondent type respondents per respondent rate annual cost
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PIs............................................ 800 0.75 $44 $26,400
ELs/TLs........................................ 800 0.75 12 7,200
Industry Mentors............................... 800 0.75 44 26,400
----------------------------------------------------------------
Total...................................... 1,200 ............... .............. 60,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated Number of Responses per Report
Data collections involve all awardees in the programs.
Dated: April 18, 2022.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2022-08581 Filed 4-21-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 22, 2022.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.