[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5517-5519]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-02029]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To Establish an Information 
Collection System

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, and as part of its 
continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) is inviting the general public or 
other Federal agencies to comment on this proposed continuing 
information collection.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by April 4, 
2022, to be assured consideration. Comments received after that date 
will be considered to the extent practicable. Send comments to address 
below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance 
Officer, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite 
W18200, Alexandria, Virginia 22314; telephone (703) 292-7556; or send 
email to [email protected]. Individuals who use a telecommunications 
device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay 
Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, which is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week, 365 days a year (including federal holidays).
    Comments: Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the Foundation, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Foundation's estimate 
of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to 
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be 
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title of Collection: Program Monitoring Data Collections for 
National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research 
(SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.
    OMB Number: 3145-NEW.
    Expiration Date of Approval: Not applicable.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to establish an 
information collection for post-award output and outcome monitoring 
system.
    Abstract: The NSF SBIR/STTR programs focus on transforming 
scientific discovery into products and services with commercial 
potential and/or societal benefit. Unlike fundamental or basic research 
activities that focus on scientific and engineering discovery itself, 
the NSF SBIR/STTR programs support the creation of opportunities to 
move fundamental science and engineering out of the lab and into the 
market at scale, through startups and small businesses representing 
deep technology ventures. Here, deep technologies refer to technologies 
based on discoveries in fundamental science and engineering. The NSF 
SBIR/STTR programs are designed to provide non-dilutive funding 
(financing that does not involve equity, debt, or other elements of the 
business ownership structure) at the earliest stages of technology 
research and development.
    The NSF SBIR/STTR programs are Congressionally mandated. By 
investing federal research and development funds into startups and 
small businesses, NSF hopes to stimulate the creation of novel 
products, services, and solutions in the private sector, strengthen the 
role of small business in meeting federal research and development 
needs, increase the commercial application of federally supported 
research results, build a strong national economy, and increase and 
develop the U.S. workforce, especially by fostering and encouraging 
participation of socially and economically disadvantaged and women-
owned small businesses.
    Both the NSF SBIR and NSF STTR programs have two phases: Phase I 
and Phase II. Phase I is a 6-12 month experimental or theoretical 
investigation that allows the awardees to determine the scientific, 
technical, and commercial merit of the idea or concept. Phase II 
further develops the proposed concept, building on the feasibility of 
the project undertaken in Phase I, with a goal of working toward the 
commercial launch of the new product, process, or service being 
developed.
    The NSF SBIR/STTR programs request the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) approval of this clearance that will allow the programs to 
improve the rigor of our surveys for evaluations and program 
monitoring, as well as to initiate new data collections to monitor the 
immediate, intermediate, and long-term outcomes of our investments by

[[Page 5518]]

periodically surveying the startup businesses and their founders/co-
founders involved in the businesses. The clearance will allow the SBIR/
STTR programs to rigorously develop, test, and implement survey 
instruments and methodologies.
    The primary objective of this clearance is to allow the NSF SBIR/
STTR programs to collect characteristics, output, and outcome 
information from the startup companies funded by the programs. This 
collection will enable the evaluation of the impacts of our investments 
in technology translation and innovation over time. The second, related 
objective is to improve our questionnaires and/or data collection 
procedures through pilot tests and other survey methods used in these 
activities. Under this clearance a variety of surveys could be pre-
tested, modified, and used.
    Following standard OMB requirements, NSF will submit to OMB an 
individual request for each survey project we undertake under this 
clearance. NSF will request OMB approval in advance and provide OMB 
with a copy of the questionnaire and materials describing the project.
    Data collected will be used for planning, management, evaluation, 
and audit purposes. Summaries of output and outcome monitoring data are 
used to respond to queries from Congress, the Small Business 
Administration (SBA), the public, NSF's external merit reviewers who 
serve as advisors, including Committees of Visitors (COVs), NSF's 
Office of the Inspector General, and other pertinent stakeholders. 
These data are needed for effective administration, program monitoring, 
evaluation, outreach/marketing roadmaps, and for strategic reviews and 
measuring attainment of NSF's program and strategic goals, as 
identified by the President's Accountable Government Initiative, the 
Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010, 
Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, and NSF's Strategic Plan.
    All questions asked in the data collection are questions that are 
NOT included in the annual, final or outcomes reports, and the 
intention is to ask the grantees even beyond the period of performance 
on voluntary basis in order to capture impacts of the research that 
occur during and beyond the life of the award.
    Grantees will be invited to submit information on a periodic basis 
to support the management of the NSF SBIR/STTR investment portfolio. 
Once the survey tool for a specific program is tested, grantees will be 
invited to submit these indicators to NSF via data collection methods 
that include, but are not limited to, online surveys, interviews, focus 
groups, phone interviews, etc. These indicators are both quantitative 
and descriptive and may include, for example, the characteristics of 
project personnel, sources of funding and support, knowledge transfer 
and technology translation activities, patents, licenses, publications, 
descriptions of significant advances, and other outcomes of the funded 
efforts.

Use of the Information

    The data collected will be used for NSF internal and external 
reports, historical data, program level studies and evaluations, and 
for securing future funding for the maintenance and growth of the NSF 
SBIR/STTR programs. Evaluation designs could make use of metadata 
associated with the award and other characteristics to identify a 
comparison group to evaluate the impact of the program funding and 
other interesting research questions.

                                            Estimate of Public Burden
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                                                                                  Annual  number
               Collection title                       Number of respondents       of  responses/    Annual hour
                                                                                    respondent        burden
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Program Monitoring Data Collections for         400 startup businesses per year.               3             600
 National Science Foundation (NSF) Small
 Business Innovation Research, (SBIR)/Small
 Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.
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    For life-of-award monitoring, the data collection burden to 
awardees will be limited to no more than 30 minutes of the respondents' 
time in each instance.

Respondents

    The respondents are either Principal Investigators (PIs) of the 
startup businesses that the NSF SBIR/STTR Programs awarded, founders, 
co-founders, and/or key personnel of the startup businesses. In the 
case of Business Survey, only one response from each startup/small 
business is anticipated.

Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents for the Hour Burdens

    The overall annualized cost to the respondents is estimated to be 
$26,400. The following table shows the annualized estimate of costs to 
PI/Founders/Business Partners respondents, who are generally university 
assistant professors. This estimated hourly rate is based on a report 
from the American Association of University Professors, ``Annual Report 
on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2020-21,'' Academe, March-
April 2021, Survey Report Table 1. According to this report, the 
average salary of an assistant professor across all types of doctoral-
granting institutions (public, private-independent, religiously 
affiliated) was $91,408. When divided by the number of standard annual 
work hours (2,080), this calculates to approximately $44 per hour.

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                                                     Number of     Burden hours       Average        Estimated
                 Respondent type                    respondents   per respondent    hourly rate     annual cost
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PIs/Founders, Business Partners.................             400             1.5             $44         $26,400
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................             400  ..............  ..............          26,400
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[[Page 5519]]

Estimated Number of Responses per Report

    Data collection for the collections involves all awardees in the 
programs involved.

    Dated: January 27, 2022.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2022-02029 Filed 1-31-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P