Notice2025-05503
Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To Establish an Information Collection
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
March 31, 2025
Issuing agencies
National Science Foundation
Abstract
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA), National Science Foundation (NSF) is inviting the general public or other Federal agencies to comment on this proposed information collection.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 60 (Monday, March 31, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 60 (Monday, March 31, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14274-14276]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-05503]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To Establish an Information
Collection
AGENCY: National Science Foundation.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and as part of its
continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the Office
of Integrative Activities (OIA), National Science Foundation (NSF) is
inviting the general public or other Federal agencies to comment on
this proposed information collection.
DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by May 30,
2025, to be assured consideration. Comments received after that date
will be considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to the
address below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance
Officer, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite
E7400, Alexandria, Virginia 22314; telephone (703) 292-7556; or send
email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6615160a0f0b1612092608150048010910"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="fb888b9792968b8f94bb95889dd59c948d">[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: Comments are invited on: (a) whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the Foundation, including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Foundation's estimate
of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Structured interviews and focus groups to
support formative evaluation planning for the NSF Growing Research
Access for Nationally Transformative Economic Development (GRANTED)
program.
OMB Number: 3145-NEW.
Expiration Date of Approval: Not applicable.
Type of Request: New information collection.
Description: A series of structured interviews and focus groups
with research administrators from Institutions of Higher Education
(IHE) and professional societies are proposed as two data sources for
the evidence-based design of a formative evaluation of the NSF Growing
Research Access for Nationally Transformative Economic Development
(GRANTED) Program. The overarching goal of this project is to
[[Page 14275]]
design an evaluation that reflects an understanding of the context and
environment in which IHEs operate and a framework that identifies
strategies and practices that can build research support capacity.
Background: In FY 2023, NSF launched a research capacity-building
initiative, Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative
Economic Development (GRANTED), to support IHEs across the research
enterprise. The GRANTED program differs from other NSF capacity-
building programs by investing in the development of institutional
research support services and infrastructure. Examples of these
services and infrastructure include helping to identify funding
opportunities, developing compliant and competitive proposals, and
managing financial and effort reporting requirements. By contrast,
other NSF capacity-building programs invest in the development of
faculty and students who perform research.
The GRANTED program emerged out of a recognition that having a
great research idea and a capable team are necessary but insufficient
factors to developing an institution's capacity to win new grants and
develop a thriving research environment. The GRANTED program, which has
an open call for proposals with no proscribed annual deadline for
submission, focuses on eight sectors listed below:
<bullet> Research Administration
<bullet> Research Integrity/Compliance
<bullet> Research Leadership
<bullet> Research Policy
<bullet> Research Development
<bullet> Management of Student Research Training
<bullet> Corporate Relations
<bullet> Technology Commercialization
As a first step, the study will conduct a literature review to
analyze the types of research support and services provided at U.S.
higher education institutions. Second, the study will provide a road
map for a formative program evaluation, along with a feasibility memo
of what data can be used for the evaluation. The guiding research
questions for this work are:
1. What is the current state of the research support and service
infrastructure in institutions of higher education as it relates to
human capital, practices, policies, and partnerships?
a. What are promising practices to improve such research support
and service infrastructure?
b. What outcomes are associated with different research support
operating models, different levels of organizational maturity, and/or
different levels of research infrastructure support?
2. What is a feasible formative evaluation, guided by a logic
model, that best provides tools, insights, assessments, and strategies
to monitor and improve the GRANTED program?
The proposed interviews and focus groups will be conducted to
analyze: (1) how institutional mission and strategy align with research
support capacity and institutional investment, (2) the type of
infrastructure in place to support research development, pre-award and
post-award administration, compliance, etc., (3) research support and
service infrastructure impediments to performing more research, and (4)
where research administrators go to learn more about best practices in
research administration support and troubleshooting.
Methodology: The study proposes to conduct 25 interviews and 10-12
focus groups with 5-7 participants each with research administrators at
institutions of higher education. Examples of the types of individuals
who would be invited to participate include Vice Presidents for
Research, Assistant Deans for Research, Senior Research Development
Officers, Directors of Sponsored Programs, other Office of Sponsored
Programs staff, and individuals in leadership positions at professional
organizations associated with research development and support.
For both the interviews and the focus groups, the study expects to
select a single sample of 100 higher education institutions. The sample
will include institutions that have been awarded funding through the
GRANTED program and institutions that have not received GRANTED
funding. The stratified random sample will reflect a variety of
institutions in terms of Carnegie Classification of research activity,
i.e., amount of research performed, and broad geographic location,
e.g., four Census regions. Once these institutions are sampled, the
project team will contact institutional administrators at the selected
institutions to identify appropriate individuals to participate.
Feedback collected under this clearance will provide useful
information for a future evaluation of the GRANTED program. In addition
to the interviews and focus groups, other data sources that the study
is using to inform the evaluation design include a literature review
and an exploration of existing federal and non-federal data collections
that might be used to measure GRANTED program impacts.
Affected Public: The targeted participants are individuals who
serve as Vice Presidents for Research, Assistant Deans for Research,
Senior Research Development Officers, Directors of Sponsored Programs,
other Office of Sponsored Programs staff, and individuals in leadership
positions at research administration and development professional
organizations.
Average Expected Annual Number of Activities: For each collection
method, we anticipate the following lower and upper bounds for the
numbers of responses and response burdens by collection method:
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Approximate Approximate
Estimated Estimated Estimated lower bound upper bound
Collection method Category of respondent lower bound upper bound average Frequency of data response response
(number of (number of response collection burden burden
responses) responses) time (min) (hours) (hours)
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Interviews........................... Individual research 20 25 30 Once.................. 10 12.5
administrators.
Focus groups......................... Individual research 50 75 45 Once.................. 37.5 56.25
administrators.
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Respondents: Interviews Lower bound estimate of 20 individuals and
upper bound estimate of 25 conducted once during the project. For the
focus groups, lower bound estimate of 50 individuals and upper bound
estimate of 75 individuals conducted once during the project.
Annual Responses: The data will be collected in a single 3- to 6-
month period. The lower and upper bound response estimates are 70 and
100, respectively.
Frequency of Response: Please refer to the description of
programmatic categories for frequency of data collection.
Average Minutes per Response: 30 minutes for interviews, 45 minutes
for focus groups.
Burden Hours: Lower and upper bound estimates of approximately 47.5
hours and 68.75 hours, respectively.
[[Page 14276]]
Dated: March 26, 2025.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2025-05503 Filed 3-28-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P
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