SBIR Award Process and Contract Administration Supporting Statement

OMB Control No. # 693-0031 – NIST Generic Request for Customer Service-Related Data Collections

NIST SBIR Awards Process and Contract Administration Survey

FOUR STANDARD SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. Explain who will be surveyed and why the group is appropriate to survey.

This survey will be sent only to those small businesses that submitted proposals in response to the NIST SBIR Program Solicitation and were successful in obtaining a contract. The phase 1 awardee is the most appropriate group to survey for feedback on how the awards period was managed and our contract administration process. The purpose of the survey is to identify areas in the SBIR awards and contract administration process that can be improved.

2. Explain how the survey was developed including consultation with interested parties, pre-testing, and responses to suggestions for improvement.

This survey is unchanged from the approved survey that has been used in previous years. The responses received have provided meaningful feedback to the program to allow for process improvements.

3. Explain how the survey will be conducted, how customers will be sampled if fewer than all customers will be surveyed, expected response rate, and actions your agency plans to take to improve the response rate.

All SBIR Phase 1 awardees will receive a mailing of the survey after completion of their contract period. Based on past responses, we expect an 80% response rate. Since providing contact information is optional, no follow-up is done to improve the response rate.

4. Describe how the results of the survey will be analyzed and used to generalize the results to the entire customer population.

Each response is reviewed individually and examined for opportunities for improvement in our process. Responses are also compared from previous years to determine success of process modifications.