[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 114 (Monday, June 16, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25378-25380]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-11079]
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Notice of Intent to Seek Approval To Renew 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 August 15,
2025, 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
E6300, 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 the
National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program.
OMB Number: 3145-0267.
Expiration Date of Approval: June 30, 2025.
Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to renew 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
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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 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 3 900
National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation members) per year.
Corps (I-Corps) Program.
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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.
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Burden hours
Respondent type Number of per Average Estimated
respondents respondent hourly rate annual cost
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PIs............................................. 400 0.75 $44 $13,200
ELs/TLs......................................... 400 0.75 12 3,600
Industry Mentors................................ 400 0.75 44 13,200
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Total....................................... 1200 .............. .............. 30,000
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Estimated Number of Responses per Report
Data collections involve all awardees in the programs.
Dated: June 12, 2025.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2025-11079 Filed 6-13-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P