Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

sradovich on DSKJLST7X2PROD with NOTICES

50184

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 170 / Tuesday, September 7, 2021 / Notices
OMB Approval Number: 31450239.
Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to renew with revisions an information collection for three years.
Proposed Project: The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 Pub. L.
81507 set forth NSFs mission and purpose:
To promote the progress of science;
to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense.
The Act authorized and directed NSF
to initiate and support:
Basic scientific research and research fundamental to the engineering process;
Programs to strengthen scientific and engineering research potential;
Science and engineering education programs at all levels and in all the various fields of science and engineering;
Programs that provide a source of information for policy formulation; and Other activities to promote these ends.
Among Federal agencies, NSF is a leader in providing the academic community with advanced instrumentation needed to conduct state-of-the-art research and to educate the next generation of scientists, engineers and technical workers. The knowledge generated by these tools sustains U.S. leadership in science and engineering S&E to drive the U.S.
economy and secure the future. NSFs responsibility is to ensure that the research and education communities have access to these resources, and to provide the support needed to utilize them optimally, and implement timely upgrades.
The scale of advanced instrumentation ranges from small research instruments to shared resources or facilities that can be used by entire communities. The demand for such instrumentation is very high, and is growing rapidly, along with the pace of discovery. For major facilities and shared infrastructure, the need is particularly high. This trend is expected to accelerate in the future as increasing numbers of researchers and educators rely on such major facilities, instruments, and databases to provide the reach to make the next intellectual leaps.
NSF currently provides support for facility construction from two accounts:
The Major Research Equipment and Facility Construction MREFC account, and the Research and Related Activities R&RA account. The MREFC account, established in FY 1995, is a separate budget line item that provides an agency-wide mechanism, permitting
VerDate Sep<11>2014

00:30 Sep 04, 2021

Jkt 253001

directorates to undertake major facility projects greater than $100M and midscale research infrastructure projects between $20M and $100M. Smaller mid-scale and research instrumentation projects continue to be supported from the R&RA Account.
Facilities are defined as shared-use infrastructure, instrumentation and equipment that are accessible to a broad community of researchers and/or educators. Facilities may be centralized or may consist of distributed installations. They may incorporate large-scale networking or computational infrastructure, multi-user instruments or networks of such instruments, or other infrastructure, instrumentation and equipment having a major impact on a broad segment of a scientific or engineering discipline. Historically, awards have been made for such diverse projects as accelerators, telescopes, research vessels and aircraft, and geographically distributed but networked sensors and instrumentation.
The growth and diversification of major facility projects require that NSF
remain attentive to the ever-changing issues and challenges inherent in their planning, construction, operation, management and oversight. Most importantly, dedicated, competent NSF
and awardee staff are needed to manage and oversee these projects; giving the attention and oversight that good practice dictates and that proper accountability to taxpayers and Congress demands. To this end, there is also a need for consistent, documented requirements and procedures to be understood and used by NSF program managers and awardees for all such major projects.
Use of the Information: Facilities are an essential part of the science and engineering enterprise, and supporting them is one major responsibility of the National Science Foundation NSF.
NSF makes awards to external entities primarily universities, consortia of universities or non-profit organizationsto undertake construction, management and operation of facilities. Such awards frequently take the form of cooperative agreements. NSF does not directly construct or operate the facilities it supports. However, NSF retains responsibility for overseeing their development, management and successful performance. The Major Facilities Guide is intended to:
Provide step-by-step guidance for NSF staff and awardees to carry out effective project planning, management and oversight of major facilities while considering the varying requirements of a diverse portfolio;

PO 00000

Frm 00173

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

U:07SEN1.SGM

Clearly state the policies, processes and procedures pertinent at each stage of a facilitys life cycle from development through construction, operations, and termination; and Document and disseminate good practices identified over time so that NSF and awardees can carry out their responsibilities more effectively.
This version of the Major Facilities Guide reflects new legislation applicable to major facilities, NSFs expectations for construction schedules for alignment with good practices, minimum competencies for project personnel, and guidance on the content of Segregation of Funding Plans and how to scale earned value management systems EVMS. The Guide does not replace existing formal procedures required for all NSF awards, which are described in the, Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide PAPPG.
Instead, it draws upon and supplements it for the purpose of providing detailed guidance on NSF policy and procedures related to the planning and oversight of major facilities and mid-scale projects.
All facilities projects require merit and technical review, as well as approval of certain deliverables. The level of review and approval varies substantially from standard grants, as does the level of oversight needed to ensure appropriate and proper accountability for federal funds. The requirements, recommended procedures and best practices presented in the Guide apply to any facility significant enough to require close and substantial interaction with the Foundation and the National Science Board.
This Guide will be updated periodically to reflect changes in requirements, policies and/or procedures. Award Recipients are expected to monitor and adopt the requirements and best practices included in the Guide which are aimed at improving management and oversight of major facilities projects and at enabling the most efficient and costeffective delivery of tools to the research and education communities.
The submission of proposals and subsequent project documentation to the Foundation related to the development, construction and operations of major facilities is part of the collection of information. This information is used to help NSF fulfill this responsibility in supporting meritbased research and education projects in all the scientific and engineering disciplines. The Foundation also has a continuing commitment to provide oversight on facilities development and construction which must be balanced against monitoring its information
07SEN1