[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