[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 69 (Monday, April 11, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21327-21328]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08226]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy


Proposed Agency Information Collection

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. 
Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice and request for OMB review and comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted to the Office of

[[Page 21328]]

Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance a proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995. The proposed collection in support of the DOE's Small Business 
Vouchers (SBV) pilot will gather quantitative estimates of the pilot's 
impacts as well as capture implementation lessons learned. The 
information is needed to assess the impacts of the SBV Pilot, 
documenting that the investment is producing the expected results, and 
to determine ways to improve the pilot should it be expanded in scope.
    The SBV Pilot is a funding mechanism structured to allow small 
businesses engaged in the renewable energy and energy efficiency 
sectors to collaborate with researchers at the DOE National 
Laboratories and to take advantage of the resources at the Labs that 
assist small businesses in proceeding through commercialization 
challenges. Respondents will include small businesses participating in 
the pilot as well a comparison group of small businesses outside of the 
SBV Pilot.

DATES: Comments regarding this collection must be received on or before 
May 11, 2016. 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 202-395-4718.

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

Jeff Dowd,
By email to: [email protected].
Or by mail to: Jeff Dowd, US Department of Energy, EE-61P, 1000 
Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 20585.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff Dowd, [email protected]. 
Requests may also be mailed to Jeff Dowd, US Department of Energy, EE-
61P, 1000 Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 20585. Calls may be 
directed to Jeff Dowd at (202) 586-7258.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains: (1) OMB No. ``New''; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Small Business Vouchers: Web-survey of Participating and 
Nonparticipating Small Businesses for DOE's Small Business Vouchers 
Pilot; (3) Type of Request: New collection; (4) Purpose: To evaluate 
the effectiveness and impacts of DOE's Small Business Vouchers (SBV) 
pilot program, to capture lessons learned, and make recommendations; 
The information collection will be through a web based survey, allowing 
participating SBV firms and the comparison firms to answer questions at 
a time most convenient for them. The web survey will consist of two 
full-length surveys, the first conducted once after the first year of 
vouchers has been completed (i.e., the second year of the pilot) and 
the second once five years after the pilot began, and one abbreviated 
survey administered twice in the interim years (pilot years three and 
four). The information collection assumes there will be approximately 
100 participating SBV firms in the first year of the program (vouchers 
awarded in 2016) and assumes there will be comparable levels of funding 
and participating SBV firms in 2017 and 2018. The first full-length 
survey (30 minutes in length for about 70 SBV participants and about 70 
comparison firms) will stress questions about the application, 
selection, work agreement and completion processes and also ask about 
commercialization progress and other outcomes. The survey in year five 
(30 minutes in length) will ask about 300 firms participating in SBV 
from Years 1-3 and about 100 comparison firms about interest in 
continuing to engage with the national Laboratories, but will 
concentrate on commercialization and other outcomes and how much the 
DOE program contributed to the outcomes. The abbreviated, interim-year 
surveys will be 15 minutes in length and will provide status updates on 
SBV pilot impacts such as commercialization and other outcomes. The 
purpose of also surveying small business firms that have an interest in 
working with the National Laboratories but have not participated in SBV 
is to investigate similarities and differences in the two small 
business groups. The data collected in the year five survey will also 
be used to perform a benefit-cost calculation and benchmark comparison 
of voucher firms to firms in the DOE Small Business Innovation Research 
(SBIR) program, based on existing SBIR data; (5) Annual Estimated 
Number of Respondents: Pilot Year 2 Survey: 140; Pilot Year 3 Survey: 
200; Pilot Year 4 Survey: 300; Pilot Year 5 Survey: 400 ; (6) Annual 
Estimated Number of Total Responses: Pilot Year 2 Survey: 140; Pilot 
Year 3 Survey: 200; Pilot Year 4 Survey: 300; Pilot Year 5 Survey: 400; 
(7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: Pilot Year 2 Survey: 70; 
Pilot Year 3 Survey: 50; Pilot Year 4 Survey: 75; Pilot Year 5 Survey: 
200; (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
Pilot Year 2 Survey: $0; Pilot Year 5 Survey: $0; Pilot Year 3 and 4 
Survey: $0.

    Statutory Authority: DOE Org Act (42 U.S.C. 7101, et seq.) and 
42 U.S.C. 16191 (AMO authority).

    Issued in Washington, DC on April 5, 2016.
Jeff Dowd,
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2016-08226 Filed 4-8-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P