[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 131 (Wednesday, July 8, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40965-40966]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-14644]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Generic Clearance for Challenge and Prize Competition 
Solicitations

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on March 24, 2020 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.
    Title: Generic Clearance for Challenge and Prize Competition 
Solicitations.
    OMB Control Number: 0690-0031.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (extension of a current 
information collection).
    Number of Respondents: 1,560
    Average Hours per Response: 10-30 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 260.
    Needs and Uses: 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

[[Page 40966]]

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 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.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations; Not-for-profit institutions; State, Local, or 
Tribal government; Federal government.
    Frequency: As needed.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0690-0031.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-14644 Filed 7-7-20; 8:45 am]
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