[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 78 (Friday, April 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24203-24205]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08581]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Submission for OMB review; comment request.

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SUMMARY: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has submitted the 
following information collection requirement to OMB for review and 
clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This is the second 
notice for public comment; the first was published in the Federal 
Register and no comments were received. NSF is forwarding the proposed 
renewal submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
clearance simultaneously with the publication of this second notice.

DATES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance 
Officer, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, 
Alexandria, VA 22314, 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 regarding this information collection are 
best assured of having their full effect if received within 30 days of 
this notification. Copies of the submission(s) may be obtained by 
calling 703-292-7556.
    NSF may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless 
the collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control 
number, and the agency informs potential persons who are to respond to 
the collection of information that such persons are not required to 
respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title of Collection: Program Monitoring Data Collections for the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program.
    OMB Number: 3145-NEW.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to establish an 
information collection for post-award output and outcome monitoring 
system.
    Abstract: The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps 
(I-Corps) Program was started in 2011 to develop and nurture a national 
innovation ecosystem built upon fundamental research that guides the 
output of scientific and engineering discoveries closer to the 
development of technologies, products, and services that benefit 
society.
    The goal of the I-Corps Program is to use experiential education to 
help entrepreneurial researchers reduce the time necessary to translate 
promising ideas from the laboratory bench to widespread implementation. 
In addition to accelerating technology translation, the NSF I-Corps 
program also seeks to reduce the risk associated with technology 
development conducted without insight into industry requirements and 
challenges.
    The NSF I-Corps Program is designed to support the 
commercialization of ``deep technologies,'' those revolving around 
fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. The program 
addresses the skill and knowledge gaps associated with the 
transformation of basic research into deep technology ventures. The 
program enables entrepreneurial researchers in deep technologies to 
receive support in the form of entrepreneurial education, industry 
mentoring, and funding to accelerate the translation of knowledge 
derived from fundamental research into emerging products and services 
that may attract subsequent third-party funding. I-Corps training and 
infrastructure together represent an important investment for NSF and 
the Nation, as directed by the American Innovation and Competitiveness 
Act (AICA), Public Law 114-329, Section 601.
    These selected researchers form teams and participate in the I-
Corps Teams Program Curriculum. An I-Corps team includes the 
Entrepreneurial Lead (EL), Technical Lead (TL) or the Principal 
Investigator (PI), and the Industrial Mentor (IM). During the training 
program, the team is expected to spend significant time conducting 
active customer discovery, including interviewing potential customers 
and potential partners. The outcomes of I-Corps Teams projects will be 
threefold: (1) A decision on a clear path forward based on an 
assessment of the business model, (2) substantial first-hand evidence 
for or against product-market fit, with the identification of customer 
segments and corresponding value propositions, and (3) a narrative of a 
compelling technology demonstration for potential partners.
    The NSF I-Corps program requests 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

[[Page 24204]]

program monitoring, as well as to initiate new data collections to 
monitor the immediate, intermediate, and long-term outcomes of our 
investments by periodically surveying the I-Corps teams and their 
members. The clearance will allow the program to rigorously develop, 
test, and implement survey instruments and methodologies.
    The primary objective of this clearance is to allow the NSF I-Corps 
program to collect characteristics, inputs, outputs, and outcomes 
information from the I-Corps teams funded by the program. This 
collection will enable the evaluation of the impacts on the four themes 
as outlined in the FY 2021 NSF I-Corps biennial report to Congress:

1. Training an Entrepreneurial Workforce
2. Translating Technologies
3. Nurturing an Innovation Ecosystem
4. Enabling Economic Impact

    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 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 I-Corps investment portfolio. Once 
the survey tool 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 
I-Corps program. 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 relevant 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 the    400 I-Corps Teams (1,200 program                3             900
 National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation   participants) per year.
 Corps (I-Corps) Program.
                                               5 I-Corps Hubs (1,200 program                   3             900
                                                participants) per year.
                                                                                --------------------------------
    Total....................................  2,400 participants..............  ...............           1,800
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For life-of-award monitoring, the data collection burden to awardees 
will be limited to no more than 15 minutes of the respondents' time in 
each instance.

Respondents

    The respondents are consisted of Technical Lead (TL) of the I-Corps 
Project or Principal Investigator (PI) of NSF I-Corps Program awards, 
Entrepreneurial Lead (EL), and Industry Mentor (IM).

Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents for the Hour Burdens

    The overall annualized cost to the respondents is estimated to be 
$30,000.
    The following table shows the annualized estimate of costs to PIs 
or TLs/ELs/IMs respondents.
    The annualized estimate of cost to both the PIs/TLs and IMs, who 
are generally University Professors, is calculated using the hourly 
rate 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. Similarly, the annualized estimate of costs to the ELs, 
who are generally graduate students, can be calculated using the data 
published in the 2017 Science magazine article that a typical annual 
stipend for graduate students in the sciences is around $25,000. When 
divided by the number of standard annual work hours (2,080), this 
calculates to approximately $12 per hour.

[[Page 24205]]



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                                                    Number of      Burden hours   Average hourly     Estimated
                Respondent type                    respondents    per respondent       rate         annual cost
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PIs............................................             800             0.75             $44         $26,400
ELs/TLs........................................             800             0.75              12           7,200
Industry Mentors...............................             800             0.75              44          26,400
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    Total......................................           1,200  ...............  ..............          60,000
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Estimated Number of Responses per Report

    Data collections involve all awardees in the programs.

    Dated: April 18, 2022.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2022-08581 Filed 4-21-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P