Supporting Statement A for
NIH Extramural Harassment Web Form (OD/OER)
OMB #0925-xxxx, exp., date XX/XX/XXXX
Date: September 13, 2022
Submission Type: New
Federal Government Employee Information:
Patricia Valdez, PhD
DHHS NIH OD/OER
6705 Rockledge Dr, Room 811-G MSC 7963
Bethesda, MD 20892 (20817 for FedEx, UPS, and other courier service)
Telephone: 301-451-2160
Email: patricia.valdez@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
Extramural Harassment Web Form
PIA for eRA
A. Justification (Abstract)
The NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 4 outlines that NIH recipient institutions are expected to provide safe and healthful working conditions for their employees and foster work environments conducive to high-quality research, regardless of the recipient institution. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public Law 117-103), Division H, Title II, Section 239 requires that, “[t]he Director of the National Institutes of Health shall hereafter require institutions that receive funds through a grant or cooperative agreement during fiscal year 2022 and in future years to notify the Director when individuals identified as a principal investigator or as key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions.” Therefore, NIH recipient institutions are required to notify NIH when individuals identified as PD/PI or other Senior/Key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined by the recipient institution due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation or hostile working conditions. The secure Harassment Web Form will be used to collect notifications from institutional Authorized Organization Representatives (AORs) which must include, at a minimum, the name of the AOR submitting the notification, the name of the individual of concern, a description of the concerns, the action(s) taken, and any anticipated impact on the NIH-funded award(s). The Harassment Web Form will also serve as a portal by which individuals may notify NIH of related concerns of harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions.
A.1 Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
NIH supports safe and respectful work environments that are free from harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination, or other forms of inappropriate conduct that can result in a hostile work environment. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public Law 117-103), Division H, Title II, Section 239 requires that, “[t]he Director of the National Institutes of Health shall hereafter require institutions that receive funds through a grant or cooperative agreement during fiscal year 2022 and in future years to notify the Director when individuals identified as a principal investigator or as key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions.” A dedicated web form will protect the sensitive information submitted to NIH by institutions and will allow NIH to take appropriate action to protect the research and research funds while working with the recipient to ensure that work is being conducted in a safe and healthful environment.
The Harassment Web Form will be used to collect the required notifications from recipient institutions when individuals identified as Principal Investigator or as Senior/Key Personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions. Information in these notifications will be used by a limited number of staff in the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) to determine whether concerns shared with NIH will impact the PD/PI or senior key personnel's ability to continue as the scientific lead of the project, NIH will require prior approval for a replacement PD/PI or Senior/Key Personnel. The Harassment Web Form will allow institutions to report to NIH in a secure and confidential manner and only the relevant details will be shared with those who have a need to know, which may include grants management staff at the funding institute who need to approve and process requests to change the PD/PI or Senior/Key Personnel on grants or take other grant actions.
The Harassment Web Form (see attachment 1) will also be used to collect notifications from individuals about a concern that harassment or discrimination (including but not limited to sexual harassment and racial discrimination) is contributing to an unsafe or hostile work environment affecting an NIH funded project at a grantee institution. This information will be assessed by a select few members of OER’s Integrity Team. If a potential risk is identified, OER will contact the recipient institution for additional information on the alleged event and work with the recipient institution to ensure that NIH work is being conducted in a safe and healthful environment, conducive to high quality research. This may include requiring a change of PD/PI or Senior/Key Personnel, grant restriction or termination, or the addition of specific award conditions.
A.3 Use of Information Technology and Burden Reduction
Notifications by recipient institutions about individuals identified as PD/PI or as Key/Senior Personnel in an NIH notice of award removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions will be submitted electronically into a secure Web Form that is part of the Electronic Research Administration (eRA) system and the associated eRA NIH Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA): P-9218201-570012 (see attachment 2). Use of the online Harassment Web Form will reduce the time and burden for institutional officials to notify NIH in comparison to using a paper-based collection.
Use of the Harassment Web Form to notify NIH will avoid the duplication in effort that would arise when recipient institutions attempt to contact several funding institutions regarding one case (if multiple grants are affected). The Harassment Web Form will collect information and notify the appropriate grants management staff at the funding institute if grant actions need to be taken in response to the notification. There is no similar resource that could be modified at the NIH that would be able to collect the appropriate sensitive information from extramural institutions. There is also no such similar resource in place that can accept notifications from harmed individuals with an option for remaining anonymous due to fear of retaliation.
The Harassment Web Form collection method will not cause an additional impact on small businesses or other small entities. Grant recipients must comply with the law, and the Harassment Web Form will reduce burden.
As stated in the NIH Notice, NOT-OD-22-129, “recipient institutions are required to notify NIH when individuals identified as PD/PI or other Senior/Key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined by the recipient institution due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation or hostile working conditions. Notification must be provided by the Authorized Organization Representative within 30 days of the removal or disciplinary action and must be submitted to NIH through a dedicated web form.” The Harassment Web Form will allow recipient institutions to comply with the law in a timely manner and allow NIH to move quickly when notified of the above situations which may require grant actions to protect the research, funds, and the work environment.
Due to the need for recipients and NIH to act quickly when a PD/PI or other Senior/Key personnel is removed from their position or otherwise disciplined, notifications to NIH must occur on a regular basis, more often that quarterly. Recipients must notify NIH within 30 days of the removal or disciplinary action.
This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2022, pages 36865-36866 (87 FR 36865) and allowed 60 days for public comment. No public comments were received.
N/A
A.9 Explanation of Any Payment of Gift to Respondents
Respondents will not receive payments or gifts.
A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents
Notifications from respondents (grant recipients) must include, at a minimum, the name of the AOR submitting the notification, the name of the individual of concern, a description of the concerns, the action(s) taken, and any anticipated impact on the NIH-funded award(s). The information will also include the name of the institution where the AOR and individual of concern are employed. Contact information such as email address or phone numbers of the individual providing the notification are optional. NIH treats sensitive information as confidential information in accordance with the NIH Grants Policy Statement (NIH GPS) Section 2.3.11.2. Such information is subject to the Privacy Act; therefore, the reports will not be made public and will be maintained in our records.
A.11 Justification
for Sensitive Questions
No sensitive questions are being asked.
A.12.1 Estimates of Hour Burden Including Annualized Hourly Costs
Estimates of the number of responders is based on past experience of the number of notifications OER has received either from individuals or for grant recipients over the past year (2021). We estimate that the number of notifications from recipient institutions will increase with the new law and the number of notifications from individuals will likely remain unchanged.
Table 12-1 Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
Type of Respondents |
Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses per Respondent |
Average Burden Per Response (in hours) |
Total Annual Burden Hours |
Private Sector |
240 |
1 |
15/60 |
60 |
TOTAL |
|
240 |
|
60 |
A.12-2 Annual Cost to respondent
Type of Respondents |
Total Annual Burden Hours |
Hourly Respondent Wage Rate* |
Respondent Cost |
Life Scientists
|
60 |
$44.09 |
$2,645.40 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
|
|
$2,645.40 |
*Bureau of Labor Statistics: The General Public, Life Scientists, and Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations rates were obtained from the http://www.bls.gov/oes/2021/may/oes_nat.htm#00-0000
A.13 Estimate of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers
Not applicable.
Cost Descriptions |
Grade/Step |
Salary** |
% of Effort |
Fringe (if applicable) |
Total Cost to Gov’t |
Federal Oversight |
|
|
|
|
|
Web Form development |
GS-14/4 |
$138,856 |
10 |
|
$13,886 |
Web Form maintenance |
GS-14/4 |
$138,856 |
5 |
|
$6,943 |
Intake and review |
GS-14/9 |
$159,894 |
50 |
|
$79,947 |
Intake and review |
GS-15/4 |
$163,333 |
10 |
|
$16,333 |
Privacy Lead |
T42 |
$178,500 |
5 |
|
$8,925 |
Contractor Cost |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Travel |
|
|
|
|
|
Other Cost |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
|
|
$126,034 |
**the Salary in table above is cited from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2022/DCB.pdf
A.15 Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments
This is a new information collection request.
Not applicable.
A.17 Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate
The OMB control number will be displayed (expiration date).
A.18 Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
None
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Subject | Supporting Statement A |
| Author | Lopez, Maria (NIH/NICHD) [E] |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-09-26 |