One Year Progress Report

First Year Report

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program

Expanded Services Client Impact Survey

OMB Control No. 0693-0060

Expiration Date: 03/31/2012

In FY2010, MEP awarded competitive Awards for expanding the delivery of services (e-CAR) and tool or product development (t-CAR); and to promote cross-project learning and collaboration, as well as to promote learning beyond the award recipients to the entire MEP system. Only eCARs have projects and are able to be surveyed. The purpose of the awards is to strengthen the competitiveness of the MEP center delivery system and to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.

eCAR - Expansion of Services Cooperative Agreement Recipient - Projects are focused on integrating two or more of MEP’s Strategic Growth Areas into client engagement models to effectively deliver services to U.S. manufacturers. This competition was open to all nonprofit organizations including universities, community colleges, state governments and state technology programs, as well as existing MEP CARs.

Because of the lag time (6 months) between when a project is reported into the MEP Enterprise Information System (MEIS; https://meis.nist.gov.) and the time a project is actually surveyed, MEP administered 1 survey during FY2010. The MEP eCAR survey was launched for the 1^st time during 2011-Q3. The survey was focused towards clients that completed projects since the inception of the eCAR funding source (October 1, 2011). The survey questions were initially approved by OMB on March 15, 2011. The MEIS is the primary mechanism that recipients use for submitting the survey to NIST MEP, facilitating the exchange of information between the CAR and NIST MEP.

Number of Surveys

For 2011-Q3, the eCAR survey was conducted for a total of 6 clients across 3 cooperative agreement recipients. The survey period ran from 10/16/2011 until 11/18/2011.

Response Rate

During the allocated one-month survey period the response rate was at 50% (3 of the 6 clients responded to the eCAR survey)

Survey Administration

The survey was developed and administered by a 3^rd party vendor, Dakota Consulting, Inc., in conjunction with a survey instrument vendor, KeySurvey. Dakota Consulting in partnership with KeySurvey administered secure data transfers, notifications and on-going support during the survey period.

Results Analysis

The survey data was successfully transported to MEP management by the survey vendor for further analysis within the MEP Enterprise Information System.

Issues Encountered

No known issues or problems were encountered during the survey period.