The Center for Scientific Review (CSR), NIH is responsible for: formulating grant award peer review policies; receiving most Public Health Service research and research training applications (almost 40,000 a year); assigning applications to peer review groups; and directing scientific and technical review of these applications. Input from our customers is essential to our efforts to improve our operations and provide excellent services. The major respondent group is customers,i.e. grant applicants/researchers/investigators.
EO: EO 12862 Name/Subject of EO: Customer service standards
CSR is requesting a reinstatement without change of No. 0925-0474 to continue the activity of assessing customer satisfaction with the organizational and process changes made by CSR. A 30-day notice was published on October 28, 2014 in a timely manner. However, the OMB package was inadvertently not submitted. The 30-day notice is being re-published. NIH policy changes since 2011 and enhancements in technical support have increased the need for more frequent customer satisfaction surveys with a broad stakeholder constituency. The 2011 OMB approval was for 5075 responses and 1438 burden hours. However, there are more initiatives being undertaken by CSR each year which results in additional respondents. In May of 2014 we had to request 1000 additional burden hours to complete a new focusing on a study of new investigators and their submission experiences. The initiative survey lengths will be comparable. For the e-mail surveys, the anticipated annual hour burden for FY 2015 through FY2017 is 4,323 hours for approximately 8,165 respondents in each of the 3 fiscal years. Focus groups will be convened, primarily for the purpose of customer input into the design of satisfaction surveys. Each focus group is expected to require 1.5 hours per person and will include approximately 12 members. CSR expects to have 20 focus groups per year. The focus groups are expected to take 1.5 hours per respondent to complete. The annual burden for focus groups is estimated to be 360 hours for each of 3 fiscal years.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Form 1 NIH/CSR Early Career Reviewer Program Survey II
Attachment 2 - New and Early Stage Investigators Survey Instrument.pdf
Attachment 1 - Applicant Survey Instrument - Focus Group guide 12 05 2014.docx
CSR SupportingStatementB 12 05 2014.doc
NIH/CSR Early Career Reviewer Program Survey II