Supporting Statement B COVID 19 Interview

COVID 19 Census of NASA Grantees

Request for a new OMB Control Number

Justification – Part B Supporting Statement

B1. Methods and Design.

The target population is all current awardees with a total estimated size of 156 primary investigators. Given the diverse nature of current grantee population, NASA has elected to do a census vs a survey as many of a grantees are currently not able to access their labs or otherwise make progress on deliverables. The agency believes a current baseline all grantees is needed. Based on the initial results, NASA may elect to switch to a survey or otherwise pare back the questions or go to a less frequent mode of collection after the initial review.

B2. Design of Data Collection Instruments.

The data collection instrument was developed in consultation with NASA budget and procurement offices so that it could be used for reporting at the project level, across all 4 programs, and quarterly to the NASA Administrator as requested.

B3. Collection of Data.

For the June interview, each project manager with staff help will interview NASA grantees to ensure a 100% response rate. NASA staff will be keying in data in real-time during the interview. Given the limited bandwidth of the grantees, their stress in responding to many COVID requests (outside of this NASA request), and the limited number of questions, this should make data gathering on the grantee side less stressful. NASA may also provide the list of questions to the grantee before the interview (allowing for grantees to gather information for the required budget numbers). NASA may re-evaluate the data gathering process after the initial interview based on grantee feedback.

B3. Procedures for Quality Assurance and Quality Control and Evaluation.

Data collection activities will be monitored for quality assurance. There will be at least two individuals for each interview. Information will be entered into a database and there will be procedures to mitigate or correct detectable errors including checks to minimize errors due to data entry, coding, and/or data processing.

B4. Production of Estimates and Projections. N/A

B5. Data Analysis.

Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics for program reports and internal NASA reporting.

B6. Review and Evaluation Procedures. N/A.

B7. Data Dissemination.

This information will be primarily used internally by NASA to monitor grantee cost and schedule milestones. However, after review by OMB, some summary information may be provided in project specific annual reports to Congress or in congressional justifications.

B8. Contact Person(s).

The following project managers will be coordinating work with to collect and analyze the data.

Jeppie R. Compton -- NASA EPSCoR Project Manager at jeppie.r.compton@nasa.gov

Carrie D. Olsen and Beverly Girten -- NextGen STEM Project Managers at carrie.olsen@nasa.gov and beverly.e.girten@nasa.gov

Erica J. Alston -- Deputy Space Grant Project Manager at erica.j.alston@nasa.gov

Torry Johnson – MUREP Project Manager at torry.johnson@nasa.gov

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