CCI Center Industry Partners Interview

Appendix D: CCI Center Industry Partners Interview
Interview Request Email

Dear Dr. [LAST NAME OF INDUSTRY PARTNER],
I’m writing on behalf of the National Science Foundation Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI)
Program Evaluation to schedule a phone call with you. During that phone call, I would like to interview
you about your participation in research grant activities funded through an NSF Centers for Chemical
Innovation award.
This will help NSF to understand, from the perspective of its grantee partners, the role of the Center in
research, collaboration, and broader impacts; grantee partner satisfaction with the Center structure and
with two-phase funding models; and challenges encountered.
The call should take 20 minutes.
To schedule the phone call, please respond to this email with your availability on any of the following
date and times:
[To be updated by NSF Representative or Contractor sending: available dates and times]
I look forward to connecting with you soon and learning more about your work.
Sincerely,
Ellen Bobronnikov
CCI Study Director, Abt Associates

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CCI Center Industry Partner Consent and OMB Notification

Thank you so much for making time today to talk with me about NSF-funded Center-based research
programs. We are interviewing a sample of participants (PIs, Co-Investigators, and industry partners)
from the Centers for Chemical Innovation research community. All of these interviews will help NSF
understand the strengths and weaknesses of this funding strategy.
Your answers will be aggregated with these of other respondents and the information you provide will not
be attributed to you personally. Your participation is voluntary. Please feel free to skip any question you
do not want to answer.
We would like to audio-record this interview to make sure we accurately capture everything you say.
These recordings will not be shared outside of our team and will be destroyed in the end of the study.
Do you agree to be audio-recorded? Do you have any questions before we start?
The OMB control number for this project is 3145-NEW. Public reporting burden for this collection of
information is estimated to average 20 minutes per respondent, including the time for consenting. Send
comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspects of this collection of information, including
suggestions for reducing this burden, to Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance Officer, National
Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Ave, Alexandria, VA 22314 or send e-mail to [email protected].

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CCI Center Industry Partner Interview (30 minutes)

1. Can you describe your role and how it is related to the Center partnership?
2. What is the history of your partnership? How well did you know the other participants?
3. What is the nature and extent of your partnership? Has it changed over time?
4. What benefits of the partnership have you anticipated for yourself and your organization? To
what extent have these benefits occurred? Can you give some examples of the benefits?
5. Do you expect your partnership to persist after the funding ends? If yes, how do you envision the
partnership developing?
6. Have you experienced any challenges partnering with the Center? What were they and how have
they been resolved, if at all?

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