[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 9 (Thursday, January 13, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2204-2205]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00564]


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SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION


Generic Clearance for Formative Data Collections for Evaluation, 
Research, and Evidence-Building

ACTION: 60-Day notice of information collection and request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: The Small Business Administration (SBA) intends to request 
approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for a generic 
clearance to allow the SBA to conduct a variety of formative data 
collections with more than nine respondents. The formative evaluation, 
research, and other evidence-building data collections will inform 
future studies but will not be highly systematic nor intended to be 
statistically representative. Findings from these formative studies 
will not be generalized to the broader population and are not intended 
to inform major decisions. In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (PRA) of 1995, the SBA is soliciting public comment on the specific 
aspects of the information collection described above.

DATES: Submit comments on or before March 14, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Send all comments to Shay Meinzer, Lead Program Evaluator, 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shay Meinzer, Lead Program Evaluator, 
Office of Program Performance, Analysis, and Evaluation, Small Business 
Administration, [email protected], 202-539-1429, or Curtis B. Rich, 
Management Analyst, 202-205-7030, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The SBA intends to design and conduct 
evidence-building activities of SBA programs. SBA's evidence-building 
activities include formative evaluations of existing programs, process, 
and new initiatives; logic model development and testing; process or 
journey mapping; research syntheses; survey, questionnaire, and metric 
development; analysis; and foundational fact-finding through 
descriptive and exploratory studies.
    Under this generic clearance, the SBA would engage in a variety of 
formative and exploratory data collections with SBA grantees, program 
and potential program providers and participants, researchers, 
practitioners, and other stakeholders to fulfill the following goals:
     Maintain a rigorous and relevant evaluation and research 
agenda,
     inform the development of SBA's evidence-building 
activities,

[[Page 2205]]

     inform the delivery of targeted assistance and workflows 
related to program and grantee processes,
     inform the development and refinement of recordkeeping and 
communication systems,
     plan for provision of programmatic or evidence-capacity-
related training or technical assistance,
     obtain grantee or stakeholder input on the development or 
refinement of program logic models, evaluations, and performance 
measures, and
     test activities to strengthen programs in preparation for 
summative evaluations.
    The SBA envisions using a variety of techniques including but not 
limited to semi-structured small group discussions or focus groups, 
questionnaires and surveys, interviews (e.g., in-person, video, and 
telephone), and cognitive interviews (e.g., in-person, video and audio 
collections) to reach these goals. Participation in formative data 
collections is strictly voluntary, and personal identifiable 
information is not collected.
    Following standard OMB requirements, the SBA will submit a change 
request for each individual data collection activity under this generic 
clearance. Each request will include the individual instrument(s), a 
justification, and any supplementary documents specific to the unique 
information collection. OMB should review within 10 days of receiving 
each change request.
    The information collected in this effort will not be the primary 
subject of any published SBA reports. However, information may be made 
public through methodological appendices or footnotes, reports on 
instrument development, instrument user guides, descriptions of 
respondent behavior, and other publications or presentations describing 
findings of methodological interest. When necessary, results will be 
labeled as formative or exploratory. The aggregated results of this 
work may be prepared for presentation at professional meetings or 
disseminated in evaluation reports, research papers, and professional 
journals.
    Respondents: The populations to be studied include SBA grantees, 
program and potential program providers and participants, researchers, 
practitioners, and other stakeholder groups involved in SBA programs, 
experts in fields pertaining to SBA evaluation and research, or others 
involved in conducting SBA evaluation, research, or evidence-building 
projects.

                                             Annual Burden Estimate
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                                                                                     Estimated
 Description of data collection      Estimated     Frequency of      Estimated        average        Estimated
             method                  number of       response         annual         minutes/       annual hour
                                    respondents                      responses       response         burden
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Small group discussions or focus             240               1             240              90             360
 groups.........................
Surveys or questionnaires.......             450               1             450              30             225
Interviews......................             135               1             135              60             135
Cognitive interviews............              75               1              75              90           112.5
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    Total.......................             900  ..............             900  ..............           832.5
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    Solicitation of public comments: The SBA requests comments on (a) 
whether the collection of information is necessary for the agency to 
perform its functions properly; (b) whether the burden estimates are 
accurate; (c) whether there are ways to minimize the burden, including 
through the use of automated techniques or other forms of information 
technology; and (d) whether there are ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information collected. Comments submitted 
in response to this notice will be summarized and/or included in the 
request for OMB approval of this information collection; they also will 
become a matter of public record.

Curtis B. Rich,
Management Analyst.
[FR Doc. 2022-00564 Filed 1-12-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8026-03-P