Supporting Statement A for
Collection of grant and contract data that may be of interest to
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and small businesses
NIH/OD/OALM
OMB # 0925-0767 Expiration Date: 01/31/2024
Date: November 28, 2023
Check off which applies:
New
Revision
Reinstatement with Change
Reinstatement without Change
X Extension
Emergency
Existing w/o OMB approval
Federal Government Employee Information:
Name: Keondra Watts
Address: 6701 Rockledge Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892-7786
Telephone: 301-443-8722
Fax:
Email: Keondra.Watts@nih.gov
Table of contents
A. ABSTRACT
A.1 Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
A.2. Purpose and Use of the Information COLLECTION
A.3 Use of Information Technology and Burden Reduction
A.4 Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information
A.5 Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities
A.6 Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently
A.7 Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5
A.8 Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside Agency
A.9 Explanation of Any Payment of Gift to Respondents
A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents
A.11 Justification for Sensitive Questions
A.12 Estimates of Hour Burden Including Annualized Hourly Costs
A.13 Estimate of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record keepers
A.14 Annualized Cost to the Federal Government
A.15 Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments
A.16 Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule
A.17 Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate
A.18 Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
Attachments (save file names to match what is being referenced: (ex: x.baseline; y.screener)
Attachments
Attachment 1 – Collection Entry Screens
Name of file uploaded to PRACS = “Collection Insturment - HBCUs and small businesses Portal for Grants Contracts.docx”
Attachment 2 – Rules of Behavior
Name of file uploaded to PRACS = “Rules of Behavior - HBCUs and small businesses Portal for Grants Contracts.docx”
Attachment 3 – Privacy Impact Assessment
Name of file uploaded to PRACS = “National-Institutes-of-Health-PIA - OALM HBCU PEI Database Portal.pdf”
Attachment 4 – PEI HBCU Application
Name of file uploaded to PRACS = “PEI University Application final.pdf”
Attachment 5 – PEI Business Partner Application
Name of file uploaded to PRACS = “PEI Application Business Partner final.pdf”
A. Justification
This is an extension request to continue to collect data past the current expiration date. This effort supports the NIH Path to Excellence and Innovation (PEI) Program formed in accordance with Presidential Executive Order 13779, The White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The HBCU pre-solicitation portal is a tool to collect NIH contracts and grants data that HBCUs and their business teaming partners may be interested in pursuing. The portal provides a streamlined platform for NIH funding opportunities that consolidate information from four different Federal websites. Additionally, this tool has a social networking component that creates a space for HBCUs and businesses to collaborate as they pursue of NIH funding opportunities. Through the collection and analysis of this information, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Program Office (SBPO) assists in strengthening HBCUs’ ability to equitably participate in Federal funding programs.
A.1 Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
Presidential Executive Order 13779 is the White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation (PEI) of HBCUs. This Executive Order mandates agencies to assist in strengthening HBCU’s ability for equitable participation in Federal programs and explore new ways to improve the relationship between the Federal Government and HBCUs. This initiative establishes how each agency intends to increase the capacity of HBCUs to compete effectively for grants and contracts.
The PEI is a comprehensive plan to increase the capacity of HBCUs as they pursue funding opportunities at the NIH. The PEI provides a platform to increase transparency between HBCUs and the NIH by promoting outreach events and training opportunities and providing technical assistance. Previously there were six HBCU participants and now we have opened the system up to nineteen HBCU participants. Currently, the nineteen HBCUs participants should select a minimum of one small business teaming partner to pursue NIH funding opportunities with.
HBCUs are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and are vital engines in improving the socioeconomic outcomes of minorities. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU as “…any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.”1
A small business is defined as a privately-owned company in the legal form of a corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. The Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a small business as one that typically makes a maximum of $750,000 to $38.5 million in annual revenue and has less than 100 to 1,500 employees. The annual revenue and number of employees depends on the industry of the small business. The majority of businesses are small businesses.2 The NIH’s small business statutes encompass small businesses, small, disadvantaged businesses, women owned, HUBZone, and service-disabled small businesses.
HBCU Teams
HBCU |
Small Business Partners |
|
Bowie State University |
Technuf
LLC; |
|
Central State University |
KEY CONCEPTS
KNOWLEDGEBASE LLC; |
|
Cheyney University |
Delaware State
University; |
|
Clark Atlanta University |
Technuf
LLC; |
|
Delaware State University |
Cheyney
University, Director Title III/Grants Administration; |
|
Elizabeth City State University |
Data Storage
Science; |
|
Fayetteville State University |
z SofTech
Solutions; |
|
Fisk University |
B3 Solutions
LLC; |
|
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University |
Technuf
LLC; |
|
Howard University |
BETAH
Associates, Inc.; |
|
Jackson State University |
Longevity Consulting, LLC |
|
Morehouse College |
KEY CONCEPTS
KNOWLEDGEBASE LLC; |
|
Morehouse School of Medicine |
Williams
Consulting, LLC; |
|
Morgan State University |
Axis Consultant
Group & Associates LLC; |
|
Norfolk State University |
Sage Services
Group LLC; |
|
North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University |
None Selected |
|
Texas Southern University |
Intellectual Concepts, LLC |
|
University of Virgin Islands |
Telling Your
Story, LLC dba High Impact Partners; |
|
Xavier University of Louisiana - ORSP |
Oak Ridge Associated Universities |
|
The goals of this OMB study for collecting this data are:
Establish how the NIH intends to increase the capacity of HBCUs to compete effectively for grants, contracts or cooperative agreements
Identify Federal programs and initiatives where HBCUs are not well represented, and improve HBCUs participation in those programs and initiatives
Develop a reference manual/curriculum on how to do business with Federal Government for the schools
Develop WIN strategies using existing small business rules/regulations to leverage potential opportunities
Encourage public-sector, private-sector, and community involvement in improving the overall capacity of HBCUs
Seek funding to continue the contract support for the initiative
Before the user can access the HBCU pre-solicitation portal, see Attachment 1 “Collection Entry Screens”, the user will register for an account that will be authorized by the NIH SBPO staff with a secure password. This allows them to report on grants and contracts of interest and view grant and contract opportunities.
The HBCU pre-solicitation portal provides a central repository for HBCUs and small businesses to report Federal grants and contracts of interest. The system allows them to see what grants and contracts are available through periodic data uploads from grants.nih.gov, NIH RePORTER, sam.gov, and FPDS.gov. The data uploaded from these sites will reduce the user’s reporting effort by prepopulating about 95% of the data input fields. Consolidating the upcoming grants and contracts into this system decreases the burden on the HBCUs and businesses by giving them one site to access NIH funding opportunities. The information entered by an HBCU or a business is viewable only by that HBCU or business and the NIH SBPO staff.
Another advantage of the HBCU pre-solicitation portal is the guidance provided by the NIH SBPO staff when users indicate an opportunity of interest. The HBCU pre-solicitation portal also offers a social networking platform that allows for and promotes collaboration between the NIH SBPO staff, HBCUs and their business partners.
This HBCU pre-solicitation portal replaces a manual process that is done by the NIH SBPO to satisfy government reporting requirements. This reporting provides the NIH SBPO staff insight into the HBCU/business partner team’s grant and contract interests and providing baseline data to analyze unsuccessful and successful application rates. The information collected also provide data regarding HBCUs engagement with NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs), contract offices, and programs, potentially revealing NIH hot spots and areas where HBCUs may be underutilized.
The purpose and use of the information collected provides the NIH SBPO staff with insight into HBCUs and their business partner’s interests in various government grants and contracts relevant to their organizations. This analysis will also help the NIH SBPO staff to inform these entities of grants and contracts opportunities that they may otherwise not realize are available. Reporting this information is voluntary by the HBCUs and their business partners; however, providing grants and contracts of interest enables the NIH SBPO to make informed suggestions regarding other grants and contracts and reduces the burden of research on the user. Smart logic is utilized to match HBCUs and small businesses to potential opportunities. Matching is based on past opportunities the HBCUs and small business have indicated they are interested in and based on the users selected NIH ICs and organizational capabilities entered in their profile. HBCUs and their business partners can accept or reject recommended opportunities allowing the smart logic to learn schools’ preferences over time and improve opportunity matches that are presented to them through their dashboard. The registration feature will allow a user to register for access to the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal. After the NIH SBPO reviews the access request and determines to grant access, the user receives their user-id and secure password. The reporting feature provides valuable insight to the NIH SBPO regarding the efficacy and quality of the HBCUs and their teaming partners by allowing them to evaluate each other. The reporting feature also provides feedback to the NIH SBPO on the efficacy, quality and impact of trainings offered by NIH to the HBCU’s and teaming partners. The reporting feature also enables the NIH SBPO to monitor if adequate engagement is occurring between the HBCUs and teaming partners. Finally, the feature allows the system users to evaluate the SBPO’s customer service and overall value provided by the PEI program.
This effort by the NIH SBPO staff to inform HBCUs and small businesses about grants and contracts ties directly into the Presidential Executive Order 13779 where the agency intends to increase the capacity of HBCUs to compete effectively for grants and contracts in areas where HBCU’s are not well represented.
Over the past three years the system appears to be helping HBCUs find opportunities more quickly through the system itself and the knowledge that is provided to the NIH SBPO staff about the HBCUs to help HBCU identify opportunities. Having access to a list of potential business partners greatly reduces the burden on the HBCUs as they look for a business partner to work with. System adoption by the HBCUs is good and was helped through the NIH SBPO’s educational materials, in person and remote trainings and seminars and the NIH SBPO’s quick access to the cohort that is participating in the program. The HBCU’s and business partners have greatly benefited from the consolidation of opportunities from four different sites into the portal. The NIH SBPO has benefited from the automated reporting that is provided by the system which was manually done through spreadsheets in the past.
A.3 Use of Information Technology and Burden Reduction
The collection database is a web based application and can be accessible through the following Web site: (https://oamp.hbcu.od.nih.gov/oamp/login.do). Features of the data collection system include, but are not limited to the following elements:
Create a user account
Select grants an HBCU or small business is interested in
Select contracts an HBCU or small business is interested in
Dashboard to display grants and contracts that have been entered and other opportunities are available
Facility to ask for assistance
Collaboration facility with other small businesses and HBCUs
Registration
Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual reporting from the HBCU or small business user
Additionally, the site provides the users access to content offering guidance when the users are interested in pursuing a grant or contract.
There is no cost associated to using this system from an end user perspective.
The HBCU pre-solicitation portal loads data from the following sources: grants.nih.gov, NIH RePORTER, sam.gov and FPDS.gov. This process reduces the data entry burden of the users when entering information regarding grants and contracts of interest.
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) has been completed and submitted for the HBCU pre-solicitation portal, see Attachment 3 “Privacy Impact Assessment”.
Currently, there is no web-based system to collect information regarding which grants and contracts the HBCUs and their business partners may be interested in applying for. When HBCU and business users add a grant or contract opportunity using the portal, most of the information will already be in the system due to the periodic data loads from various sources. The HBCUs and business partners select the grant or contract they are interested in and approximately 95% of the information is automatically populated. In addition, the users benefit from the ability of the NIH staff to analyze and understand their interest and potentially present other possibilities of grants and contracts that they would not have been aware of. This online platform will support collaboration between the NIH SBPO and the hundreds of HBCU and business teaming partners enabling efficient communication. Currently these partnerships take place in person which requires funding and time for travel increasing expenses.
The HBCUs and businesses also benefit from the smart logic functionality that will match schools and teaming partners with grant and contract opportunities that are displayed on the system’s dashboard. This will relieve the users of the burden of performing research and analysis.
The HBCU pre-solicitation portal benefits users by providing them access to consolidated data from different sources on one platform. While the HBCUs in our program are not restricted in selecting either a large or small teaming partner, subcontracting with small businesses is recommended for training purposes. Additionally, smart logic matches prospective grant and contract opportunities with the HBCUs and businesses. The online collaboration platform makes communications more efficient between NIH SBPO and the HBCUs and their business teaming partners. The reporting feature provides one consolidated system for the user to go to for reporting instead of using an external different reporting tool.
The current manual tracking effort used to collect information regarding the grant and contract interests of the HBCU’s and their business teaming partners indicates that these entities historically show interest in up to 10 contracts and 10 grants on a yearly basis. This process uses a spreadsheet as the tool to collect the data about contracts and grants. The number of 10 contracts and 10 grants is determined from the research done by the NIH SBPO staff in conjunction with the HBCUs and businesses considering previous contract and grant awards. The users of the HBCU pre-solicitation portal can access the system as many times as desired and use the consolidated information from the four sites to identify available government contracts and grants. The HBCU pre-solicitation portal does not restrict the user from looking at other sites to gain understanding of available contracts and grants; however, the HBCU pre-solicitation portal consolidates government contracts and grants from four of the sites that are normally accessed to obtain this information. The auto-matching feature of contract and grant opportunities to the HBCUs and their business partners, the HBCU pre-solicitation portal helps them be better informed of opportunities that they may not be aware of and reduces the burden of researching these opportunities on one of the four government websites. Since the availability of these contracts and grants can be sporadic, the HBCUs will enter their opportunities of interest into the HBCU pre-solicitation portal once the contract or grant is published to one of our four data sources. Only after these entities have determined interest in a particular contract or grant will they voluntarily enter the information into the HBCU pre-solicitation portal which has been estimated to take up to 10 minutes per grant or contract. There will be a beneficial consequence to the government if this information is collected because of the mandate to generate metrics regarding grants and contracts the HBCUs are interested in pursuing. Through the collection and analysis of this information the NIH SBPO can better serve the HBCUs and promote equitable participation in Federal programs.
On a monthly basis the reporting feature gives the HBCU’s the opportunity to provide feedback to the NIH SBPO regarding the HBCU’s engagement with the teaming partners, trainings offered by NIH they have partaken of and their evaluation of the training. The reporting feature enables the NIH SBPO to monitor if adequate engagement is occurring between the HBCUs and teaming partners. On a quarterly basis the reporting feature provides a feedback mechanism for the HBCU’s and teaming partners to evaluate each other and provide feedback on the PEI Program to the NIH SBPO. On an annual basis the reporting provides more opportunity for the HBCU’s to evaluate their teaming partners and give evaluation and feedback on the SBPO’s customer service.
A.7 Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5
Special circumstances relating to these guidelines do not apply to the information collected through the HBCU pre-solicitation portal. Individuals voluntarily submit this information to the NIH SBPO.
Notification of this information collection for the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal was originally published on Friday, October 27, 2023 (Vol. 88, No. 207 on pages 73864-73865). There were no comments received during the 60-day notice.
There were no outside agencies consulted for the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal.
A.9 Explanation of Any Payment of Gift to Respondents
Neither payments nor gifts will be distributed to individuals to encourage the completion and submission of grant and contract data into the system.
The HBCUs and small businesses that choose to report into the system will benefit from a consolidation of government grants and contracts in one system. Analysis performed by the NIH SBPO may lead them to opportunities they may otherwise never be aware of. The tool provides awareness of HBCUs and small businesses and their capabilities, promoting collaboration between potential teaming partners.
A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents
The information collected/entered by the user is available only to that user and the NIH SBPO staff. The information will be used for government reporting requirements. The use of this information will adhere to NIH SORN 09-25-0156 “Records of Participants in Programs and Respondents in Surveys Used to Evaluate Programs of the Public Health Service, HHS/PHS/NIH/OD.” (see page 60765).
The HBCUs and small businesses use the registration feature to obtain login credentials, including "strong" passwords that conform to standards used by the NIH Center for Information Technology, and the online tools these individuals use to enter data are restricted to HBCU and small business approved users. Users receive login credentials, including randomly generated or user-defined passwords, when they first apply.
PII collected when an account is being provisioned for access to the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal includes:
Name
Email Address
Phone Numbers
Mailing Addresses
The Rules of Behavior (ROB) are displayed on the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal website, see attachment 2 “Rules of Behavior”.
A.11 Justification for Sensitive Questions
The HBCU Pre-solicitation portal does not contain sensitive questions as described in sections A.11.
A.12.1 Estimates of Hour Burden Including Annualized Hourly Costs
The estimated time to enter the information about a grant or contract into the system is approximately 10-minutes, which is based on the NIH contractor experience when testing the application. Users can revisit the data they have entered to change information they have provided regarding grants and contracts. Because these changes are not required for the information collected, time associated with these actions is not included in the estimate to enter the data. Additionally, it has been estimated through testing cycles that the user would spend up to 15 minutes registering for an account and 15 minutes completing the monthly, quarterly, and annual reports respectively. The HBCUs, see attachment 4 “PEI HBCU Application”, and small businesses, see attachment 5 “PEI Business Partner Application”, will have to complete an application to participate in the PEI initiative, it has been estimated that it will take 45 minutes to complete the application.
Table A12-1 Estimate Annualized Burden Hours
Form Name |
Type of Respondent |
Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses per Respondent |
Average Burden Per Response (in hours) |
Total Annual Burden Hour |
HBCU Pre-Solicitation Portal for Contracts and Grants (Attachment Number 1) |
Private Sector |
62 |
18 |
45/60 |
837 |
Application for Small Business (Attachment Number 5) |
Private Sector |
43 |
1 |
45/60 |
32 |
Application for Universities (Attachment Number 4) |
Private Sector |
19 |
1 |
45/60 |
14 |
Total |
|
62 |
1178 |
|
883 |
A.12-2 Annual Cost to respondent
Table A12-2 Annualized cost to Respondent
Type of Respondents |
Total Annual Burden Hours |
Hourly Respondent Wage Rate* |
Respondent Costs |
Financial Analyst and Advisors (13-2050) |
442 |
$56.14 |
$24,813.88 |
Management Analyst (13-1111) |
442 |
$50.32 |
$22,241.44 |
TOTAL |
|
|
$47,055.32 |
|
|
|
|
* Bureau of Labor Statistics: The General Public rate was obtained from the http://www.bls.gov/oes/2022/may/oes_nat.htm#00-0000
A.13 Estimate of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers
There are no capital costs, operating costs, or maintenance costs to report.
The HBCU Pre-solicitation portal is a new system and the cost to the federal government to develop and deploy the application along with the cost of NIH SBPO staff is described in the table below.
Cost Descriptions |
Grade/Step |
Salary* |
% of Effort |
Fringe (if applicable) |
Total Cost to Gov’t |
Federal Oversight |
|
|
|
|
|
Program Analyst
|
Grade 9/Step1 |
$64,957.00
|
12.5% (5 hours per week) |
|
$8,119.63 |
Program Manager
|
Grade 14/Step9 |
$167,663.00
|
12.5% (5 hours per week) |
|
$20,957.88 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contractor Cost |
|
|
|
|
$632,590.00 |
Travel |
|
|
|
|
0 |
Other Cost |
|
|
|
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
$661,667.51 |
*the Salary in table above is cited from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/23Tables/html/DCB.aspx
The annual cost for the support of the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal is approximately $661,667.51annually.
A.15 Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments
Over the past three years the application for the HBCU’s and Business Partners has not changed from a functionality perspective. The system currently has 62 respondents participating the program with 883 annualize burden hours. The number of respondents participating in the program have increased by 49 and the burden hours have increased by 697 hours. It is still the standard practice that in order for the HBCUs and small businesses to be accepted into the PEI Initiative and gain access to the portal, they will have to complete the appropriate application, see attachment 4 “PEI HBCU Application” or attachment 5 “PEI Business Partner Application”. The applications can be accessed through the links on the HBCU webpage https://oamp.hbcu.od.nih.gov/oamp.
A.16 Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule
Information collected by the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal will not be published but the NIH SBPO staff will review the data entered by HBCUs and small businesses to obtain an understanding of the interests being pursued to perform analysis and suggest relevant opportunities they may want to consider.
Following list provides a general overview of the process that the NIH SBPO staff will execute:
A.16 – 1 Project Time Schedule |
|
Activity |
Time Schedule |
Inform HBCUs and small businesses of upcoming NIH events |
1 - 2 months after OMB approval |
Respond to any requests for assistance from the HBCU and small business users |
1 – 12 months after OMB approval |
Pull data from the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal |
6 – 8 months after OMB approval |
Perform analysis of interests by HBCUs and small business |
9 – 11 months after OMB approval |
Post suggested opportunities to the HBCU Pre-solicitation portal for HBCUs and small businesses |
12 months after OMB approval |
A.17 Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate
The OMB number and expiration date will be displayed.
A.18 Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
There are no exceptions to the Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-10-01 |