[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 119 (Thursday, June 22, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28472-28473]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-13001]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request: Challenge and Prize 
Competition Solicitations Generic Clearance

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Office of the Secretary (OS), Department of Commerce, has submitted an 
Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a new ICR 
to seek generic clearance for the collection of routine information 
requested of responders to solicitations the Federal government makes 
during the issuance of challenges and competitions posted on the 
General Service Administration (GSA)'s Challenge.gov Web site. Comments 
submitted during the first public review of this ICR will be provided 
to OMB. OMB will accept further comments from the public on this ICR 
during the review and approval period.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before July 24, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or fax 
to (202) 395-5806.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: This information collection request 
may be viewed at reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view 
Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Challenge and Prize Competition Solicitations Generic 
Clearance.
    Proposed Project: Descriptive information of solutions provided to 
the Federal government in response to Challenge and Competition 
solicitations posted on Challenge.gov.--OMB Control Number: 0690-XXXX 
(New collection), Office of the Secretary.
    Abstract: This request seeks generic clearance for the collection 
of routine information requested of responders to solicitations the 
Federal government makes during the issuance of challenges and 
competitions posted on the General Service Administration (GSA)'s 
Challenge.gov Web site. Since passage of the America COMPETES Act of 
2011. In order for DOC to quickly and effectively launch competitions 
on a continual basis, DOC seeks generic clearance to collect 
information for these challenges and competitions, which will generally 
include first name, last name, email, city, state and when applicable 
other demographic information, such as date of birth. It can also 
include other information necessary to evaluate submissions and 
understand their impact related to the general goals of the 
competition. Upon entry or during the judging process, applicants under 
the age of 18 may be asked to confirm parental consent, requiring 
students under 18 to have a parent signature in writing on a parental 
consent form provided by the Department in order to qualify for the 
contest. For certain challenges we may also need to collect data such 
as types of data sets used in the solution, types of software tools 
used in the solution, and information regarding uses of proprietary 
software (i.e., licenses or use agreements). Information obtained from 
participants will be used by the program managers (challenge manager), 
other agency officials (such as general counsel representatives) and in 
some cases the technical reviewers acting on behalf of

[[Page 28473]]

the program manager (challenge manager).
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: In 2011, Federal agencies 
including DOC were given prize authority for administering challenges 
and competitions. Section 105(a) of the America Competes Act, adds 
Section 24 to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 
(15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) that addresses provisions for challenges and 
competitions with prizes conducted by Federal agencies. Challenges and 
competitions enable DOC to tap into the expertise and creativity of the 
public in new ways. DOC has sponsored challenges and competitions in a 
wide variety of areas to increase public participation and solicit new 
ideas on a wide array of topics important to the agency's mission. 
DOC's goal is to engage a broader number of stakeholders who are 
inspired to work on some of our most pressing issues.
    The information collected will be used to understand whether the 
participant has met the technical requirements for the challenge, 
assist in the technical review and judging of the solutions that are 
provided, and understand the impact and consequences of administering 
the competition and developing solutions for submission. Information 
may be collected during the competition or after its completion. The 
submissions are evaluated by the submitting agency and typically prizes 
(monetary and non-monetary) are awarded to the winning entries.
    This clearance applies to challenges posted on Challenge.gov, which 
uses a common platform for the solicitation of challenges from the 
public. Each agency designs the criteria for its solicitations based on 
the goals of the challenge and the specific needs of the agency. There 
is no standard submission format for solution providers to follow.
    We anticipate that approximately 250 challenges would be issued 
each year by DOC. It is expected that other federal agencies will issue 
a similar number of challenges. There is no set schedule for the 
issuance of challenges; they are developed and issued on an ``as 
needs'' basis in response to issues the federal agency wishes to solve. 
The respondents to the challenges, who are participating voluntarily, 
are unlikely to reply to more than one or several of the challenges.
    Although in previous memoranda the GSA and Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) described circumstances whereby OMB approval of a PRA 
request is not needed, program officials at DOC have identified several 
sets of information that will typically need to be requested of 
solution providers to enable the solutions to be adequately evaluated 
by the program office issuing the challenge. These requests for 
additional information have been suggested to require a PRA review as 
they represent structured data requests.
    There are three types of additional data that may routinely be 
requested. These include the following:
    Title and/or Subject of the submission. Due to the nature of the 
submission and evaluation processes, it is important that a title and/
or subject be requested and submitted for each submission in order to 
ensure the solution is correctly identified with its provider.
    Identification of data resources. In many cases, the solution to a 
problem will require the solution provider to use data resources. 
Often, the nature of the data sets will be derived from Federal data 
resources, such as data.gov. Evaluations of solutions will often depend 
on the understanding of the selection of the data resource(s) used in 
the solution.
    Description of methodology. For effective judging and evaluation, a 
description of the development methods for the solution to the 
challenge will be requested. For instance, a prize may be awarded to 
the solution of a challenge to develop an algorithm that enables 
reliable prediction of a certain event. A responder could submit the 
correct algorithm, but without the methodology, the evaluation process 
could not be adequately performed.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Table
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                      Forms                          Number of     responses per  (in hours) per   Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
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Individuals or Households.......................             500               1           10/60            83.3
Organizations...................................             500               1           10/60            83.3
Businesses......................................             500               1           10/60            83.3
State, territory, tribal or local governments...              30               1           10/60               5
Federal government..............................              30               1           10/60               5
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    Total.......................................           1,560  ..............  ..............             255
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    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-13001 Filed 6-21-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-13-P