Assessment of the NIAID Supported Partnerships Program

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0925-0668)

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: ASSESSMENT OF THE NIAID SUPPORTED PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM

PURPOSE:

In 2002, as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Strategic Plan for Biodefense Research, NIAID funded the Partnerships for Biodefense Translational Research Program. The goal of this Partnerships Program was to support development of candidate products (sometimes referred to as countermeasures) against NIAID Category A, B, or C priority pathogens. For the Partnerships Program, a product is defined as a vaccine, therapeutic, immunotherapeutic, diagnostic, adjuvant or related platform technology. The NIH recognizes the importance of reviewing and tracking awards made through this Program, and it has determined that it is essential to review the effectiveness of the Program accomplishments including the types of products which were developed, the primary pathogen which were targeted and the outcome of specific products which were developed as a result of funding from the NIAID Partnerships program. Primary objectives are to assess the extent to which Partnerships Program goals are being met, particularly those dealing with the commercialization of research products, processes, or services, and the uncovering of new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. The purpose of this project is a retrospective assessment of the Partnerships for Biodefense Translational Research Program. The Contractor shall design and program a web based Survey Instrument to collect, process, and edit data from the Survey Instrument and prepare a formal report of the information for the Government.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Potential survey respondents are the Principal Investigators (PIs) who received Partnerships for Biodefense Translational Research Program awards made from FY 2002 to FY 2010. Approximately 300 applicants received a Partnerships awards and will be invited to participate in a survey.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name Tina M. Parker, DVM, MSPH, RN

DHHS, NIH, NIAID, DMID/OBRRTR

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X] No

ESTIMATED BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	Type of form	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Time per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Individuals	Screener	300	1	5/60	25
Individuals	Online Survey	240	1	20/60	80
Individuals	Telephone interview	15	1	1	15
Individuals	Paper interview	15	1	30/60	8
Totals		570			128

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $125,000 one-time cost.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X ] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

The universe of potential respondents is the Principal Investigators (PIs) who received awards from FY 2002 through FY 2010 for the following Request For Applications (RFAs): PAR-02-026; AI-02-026; PAR-03-025; AI 03-016; AI-03-017; AI-04-029; AI-05-019; AI-06-022; AI-06-029; AI-06-035; AI-07-003; AI-07-025; AI-08-001; AI-08-003; AI-09-016; AI-09-026; AI-09-027; AI-09-028 and AI-09-029. We intend to invite approximately 300 PIs to complete the survey and we expect an 80% response rate, giving us approximately 240 PIs who actually complete the survey.

Follow-up telephone calls will be made to non-responders to invite them to participate in the survey via web, paper survey, or phone, whichever is most convenient for the participant. It is expected that telephone interviews would occur for no more than 5 percent of invited participants (i.e. about 15 participants) and no more than 5% or about 15 participants would prefer to complete a paper survey. A scripted survey, based on the web survey will be administered by Contract staff with substantial experience in conducting telephone surveys.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ X ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ X ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ ] Yes [ X] No

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