Memo requesting rewording one question OMB No 0925-0474

Date: October 21, 2009

To: Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Through: Marilyn Tuttleman, NIH Project Clearance Officer, OPERA, OER, OD

From: Andrea Kopstein, Ph.D., MPH

Director of Planning, Analysis, and Evaluation

Center for Scientific Review, Office of the Director, NIH

Subject: Amendment to Satisfaction Surveys of Customers (CSR)-

(OMB No. 0925-0474)

OMB approved the Satisfaction Surveys of Customers on 10/1/2009. The voluntary customer satisfaction surveys of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Enhancing Peer Review Initiative will assess peer reviewers’ and grant applicants’ experience with the NIH peer review enhancements. The implementation of these enhancements began in January 2009.

The peer review system is a cornerstone of NIH. The NIH is committed to a quality control and improvement process for peer review. It is crucial to get ongoing satisfaction information from constituents to inform this improvement. The surveys will help fulfill the requirements of:

• Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards,” which directs Agencies to continually reform their management practices and operations to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector; and

• The March 3, 1998 White House Memorandum, “Conducting Conversations with America to Further Improve Customer Service,” which directs Agencies to determine the kind and quality of service their customers want as well as their level of satisfaction with existing services.

We are rewording one question in each of the two Satisfaction Surveys of Customers (question B1 on page 9 in the Applicant Survey and question C1 on page 10 in the Reviewer Survey). The question asks respondents to choose whether they prefer the new peer review system (with enhancements) or the old system (without enhancements). This change will directly gather the respondents’ opinions, allowing us to avoid having to make inferences about which system they prefer.

We request prompt review of this modification so that we may include it in the approved Satisfaction Surveys of Customers for Applicants and Reviewers.

The total burden hours currently associated with the approved Satisfaction Surveys of Customers will not change as a result of modifying one question.

Thank you for your consideration of the proposed change to the Satisfaction Surveys of Customers.

Attachment: Reviewer Survey - change highlighted on page 10, question C1

Applicant Survey - change highlighted on page 9, question B1

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