NRC Grantee Survey SS Part B revised 10-16

FINAL SUPPORTING STATEMENT

FOR

NRC NUCLEAR EDUCATION GRANTEE SURVEY

(3150-XXXX)

NEW

B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

1. Respondent Description.

Respondents will be the principal investigators at 250 colleges and Universities who have received financial assistance under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Education Grants program between the years 2007 and 2011.

2. Procedures for collecting the information.

The universe of respondents will be identified by NRC’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO), which maintains a list of grantees who received assistance through the NRC’s Education Grants Education program. Each grantee’s Principle Investigator, who received assistance between the years 2007 and 2011, will receive a letter of notification of a pending survey, signed by an Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer Senior Official, about two weeks prior to the survey being sent by email. After two weeks of the letter being sent, the Principle Investigator will be contacted by email with a personalized link to the survey, using the survey monkey web application.¹ The email will be signed by the Chief of the Branch responsible for the Education Grants program.

All grantees will respond to 37 generic questions about their institutions and grants (years of grant funding, amount of funding, etc.). The second portion of the survey is designed with skip patterns to direct respondents only to those questions that apply to their specific grant type.

3. Methods to maximize response rates and to deal with statistical issues of non-response.

Respondents will receive an initial letter, then two weeks later they will receive email notification of the availability of the survey, and will be given 30 days to participate. One week after the initial email, all respondents will receive a second email thanking those who have participating and requesting the participation of those who have not yet responded. To ensure the anonymity of the respondents, the NRC staff will not link a grantee to his/her survey responses, therefore all grantees will receive this second email. Two weeks after the initial email, if the anticipated response rate (described below) has not been achieved, a third email reminder will be sent. In addition, a member of the NRC grants team will follow-up with nonrespondents by telephone, offer to resend the survey, and remind them to complete it (see attached “NRC Grantee Survey Reminder Telephone Script.”)

The response rate to the pilot study was 78%. The NRC staff estimates that the response rate for the survey will be higher than the pilot study, at 90%, since the pilot was conducted during the summer when most Principle Investigators are not at school. This survey is planned to be delivered during the Fall 2014 semester. Although this is a high response rate for a voluntary survey the NRC staff believe that this is a reasonable estimate because the grantee community is highly invested in the success of the grants program and because there is a great deal of collaboration within the nuclear education community.

4. Tests or procedures.

A pilot study was conducted in July 2013 to assess the survey questions with a limited audience. The NRC staff contacted nine grantees and received seven responses. No adverse comments or suggestions for change were provided by respondents. Note that the burden for these respondents has been included in the burden estimates in Supporting Statement A, item #12.

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection.

NRC staff who are involved in the administration and review of the results for the NRC Education Grants program evaluation include:

Name Emmanuel (Mike) E. Atsalinos

Title Sr. Grants Specialist

Office Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer

Email [email protected]

Telephone 301-287-0546

Contractor

Name Mr. Ajay Bhardwaj, Ph.D.

Company The McKinley Group

Email [email protected]

Telephone 301-537-6295

1 310 grantees have been funded through NRC Nuclear Education grants. Due to attrition (e.g., death, change in jobs), only 250 principal investigators are still at the institutions where the grants were funded. All 250 of these grantees will be contacted.

2