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Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB#: 0925-0648 Exp., date: 06/2024)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: 2023 Survey to Assess Reviewer Feedback on the Quality of Review Among Mixed Meeting Formats

PURPOSE: NIH depends on an objective and robust peer review process to ensure that all NIH grant applications receive fair, independent, expert, and timely reviews that are free from inappropriate influences. To help assess and maintain the quality and efficiency of peer review, NIH has developed a new process that includes, among other measures, surveys to hear reviewers’ opinions about the quality of the review in which they participated in. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic NIH had to shift all their review meetings online. For the fall 2022 review meetings, CSR transitioned back to in-person review meetings and held holding 1/3 of its standing study sections, small business, and fellowship review meetings in person, with the remaining 2/3 of such meetings held in-person. For the 2023 summer and fall meetings, CSR will now hold a small number of hybrid meetings (i.e., hybrid meaning that approximately 50% of reviewers attend in-person and 50% attend virtually for the same meeting), in addition to the in-person and virtual meetings. This will be CSRs first opportunity to explore the impact that hybrid meetings have on the quality of review. The purpose of this data collection is to assess the quality of the review and determine whether there was any impact on the quality of the review due to the meeting format (i.e., in-person, virtual, hybrid). Feedback from reviewers will also help NIH further understand reviewers’ attitudes and experiences with hybrid review meetings and how virtual, in-person, and hybrid review meetings can be improved to ensure high quality reviews and reviewer satisfaction.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Respondents will be approximately 5,000 NIH grant reviewers serving on summer and fall 2023 review meetings. Most of these individuals are research scientists who work at academic universities across the U.S.

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: ______________________

FREQUENCY OF REPORTING: (Check one)

[X] Once [ ] Quarterly

[ ] Monthly [ ] On Occasion

[ ] Annually [ ] 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: Hope Cummings________________

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 and COSTS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Time per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
NIH CSR Grant Reviewers	5,000	1	5/60	417
Totals		5,000		417

Category of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate*	Total Burden Cost
Individuals	417	$40.21	$16,767.57
Totals			$16,767.57

*The wage rate was obtained from https://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes_nat.htm#19-0000

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is 3,176.80_

Staff	Grade/Step	Salary*	% of Effort	Fringe (if applicable)	Total Cost to Gov’t
Federal Oversight
Health Scientist Administrator	GS-14/7	158,840	2%		3,176.80
Contractor Cost					N/A
Travel					N/A
Other Cost					N/A
Total					3,176.80

*the Salary in table above is cited from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/DCB.pdf

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 customer list will consist of individuals who served the NIH as reviewers on select review meetings for the summer and fall of 2023. The rosters from the review meetings will be used as the participant list. Most of these individuals are research scientists who work at academic universities across the U.S. The survey will be administered to around 6,000-7,000 reviewers for the Summer review meetings and given our past history of response rates, probably around 3,500-4,000 will respond. Survey administration for the Fall review meetings will be more limited (e.g., only the hybrid meetings) and it’s estimated at 2,000 respondents. Given both the Summer and Fall review meetings, 9,000 surveys will be administered with a response of approximately 5,000.

Administration of the Instrument

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

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

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

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

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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