[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 15 (Friday, January 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3578-3579]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-01163]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Proposed Agency Information Collection

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice and Request for OMB Review and Comment.

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[[Page 3579]]

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance, a proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995. DOE, Office of Science (SC), has chosen to leverage the use of 
Government, Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) software capabilities to implement a 
new consolidated system called Portfolio Analysis and Management System 
(PAMS).

DATES: Comments regarding this collection must be received on or before 
February 23, 2015. If you anticipate that you will be submitting 
comments, but find it difficult to do so within the period of time 
allowed by this notice, please advise the DOE Desk Officer at OMB of 
your intention to make a submission as soon as possible. The Desk 
Officer may be telephoned at 202-395-4650.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to the DOE Desk Officer, 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10102, 735 17th Street NW., 
Washington, DC 20503.
    And to Marina Amoroso, Program Management Specialist, Office of 
Information Technology and Services, Germantown Building; Room E-180, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 
20585-1290, Email: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to Marina Amoroso by email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This section contains the following 
information about the information collection submitted to OMB for 
review: (1) OMB No. New; (2) Information Collection Request Title: 
Portfolio Analysis and Management System (PAMS) Submissions for Letter 
of Intent (LOI), Pre-proposals, Interagency Proposals, and DOE National 
Laboratory Proposals; System Registration by External Users. (3) Type 
of Request: New collection; (4) Purpose: This new system is based on 
the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Electronic 
Handbooks software. Discretionary financial assistance proposals 
continue to be collected using Grants.gov but are imported into PAMS 
for use by the program offices. Under the proposed information 
collection, an external interface will be implemented in PAMS to allow 
two other types of proposal submission: DOE National Laboratories will 
be able to submit proposals for technical work authorizations directly 
into PAMS, while other Federal Agencies will be able to submit 
Proposals for interagency awards directly into PAMS. External users 
from all institution types will be able to submit Solicitation Letters 
of Intent and Pre-proposals directly into PAMS. All applicants, whether 
they submitted through Grants.gov or PAMS, will be able to register 
with PAMS to view the proposals that were submitted. They will also be 
able to maintain a minimal amount of information in their personal 
profile. The proposed collection will automate and streamline the 
submission, tracking, and correspondence portions of financial award 
pre-review processes. The information collected will be used by DOE to 
select applicants and projects for financial awards. (5) Annual 
Estimated Number of Respondents: The following numbers are calculated 
using the average of the number of financial assistance proposals 
received in fiscal year 2006 through fiscal year 2010. 9,920 PAMS 
registrants, who are to include 8,000 submitters of lab proposals, 
interagency proposals, pre-proposals, and Letters Of Intent (LOI) 
(assuming one person per estimated submission) and 1,920 reviewers of 
proposals submitted through Grants.gov. (6) Annual Estimated Number of 
Total Responses: The Office of Science receives about 1,000 DOE 
national laboratory and interagency proposals per year, based on a 
five-year average of estimated submission numbers (fiscal year 2006 
through fiscal year 2010) and about 7,000 pre-proposals and letters of 
intent per year, based on an estimate of about 200 per solicitation and 
the number of solicitations per year (about 35, based on a five-year 
average between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2010); (7) Annual 
Estimated Number of Burden Hours: The time it takes to complete a form 
depends upon the type of form being completed. External users will need 
to register with PAMS in order to access the system. It takes 
approximately 30 minutes for external users to complete the forms 
required to become a registered PAMS user. Both LOI and pre-proposal 
forms take 15 minutes each, whereas completing a lab/interagency 
proposal will take about 2 hours. The reviewers require about 1 hour of 
analysis, per submission. Based on the annual estimated number of 
responses, broken down by DOE national laboratory, letter of intent and 
pre-proposal, the annual estimated time required for reviewers to 
complete analysis or responses and the time required for external users 
to register with PAMS, the estimated annual number of burden hours is 
10,630.
    Total number of unduplicated respondents: 9,920.
    Reports filed per person: 1.
    Total annual responses: 9,920.
    Total annual burden hours: 10,630.
    (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Statutory Authority

    Section 641 of the Department of Energy Organization Act, codified 
at 42 U.S.C. 7251, authorizes the DOE to collect, use, and retain 
information that is mandatory for the financial awards process. All 
information comes from proposals, reviews, and reports that are 
submitted to the DOE by authorized external users (i.e., scientists and 
research administrators).

    Issued in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2014.
Marina Amoroso,
Deputy Project Manager for Information Technology and Services, Office 
of Science.
[FR Doc. 2015-01163 Filed 1-22-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P