[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 78 (Friday, April 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24201-24203]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08586]


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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 
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

[[Page 24202]]

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 US 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 
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                  Annual number
               Collection title                      Number of respondents        of responses/     Annual hour
                                                                                    respondent        burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NSF SBIR/STTR Program Monitoring.............  400 startups per year...........                1             100
                                               1,200 Founders (up to 3 entries                 1             200
                                                per startup).
                                                                                --------------------------------
    Total....................................  ................................  ...............             300
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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

[[Page 24203]]

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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                                                                   Total burden       Average        Estimated
                         Respondent type                               hours        hourly rate     annual cost
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PIs, Founders, Business Partners................................             300             $44         $13,200
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    Estimated Number of Responses per Report: Data collection for the 
collections involves all awardees in the programs involved.

    Dated: April 18, 2022.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2022-08586 Filed 4-21-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P