60-day FR notice for GSS

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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 45 / Monday, March 9, 2026 / Notices

Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S.
Virgin Islands); and
• The Freely Associated States (the
Federated States of Micronesia, the
Republic of Palau, and the Republic of
the Marshall Islands).
IMLS authorizing legislation at 20
U.S.C. 9134 directs State Library
Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) to
‘‘independently evaluate, and report to
the Director regarding, the activities
assisted under this subchapter, prior to
the end of the Five-Year Plan.’’ This
evaluation provides SLAAs an
opportunity to measure progress in
meeting the goals set in their approved
Five-Year Plans with a framework to
synthesize information across all state
reports in telling a national story.
Agency: Institute of Museum and
Library Services.
Title: Guidelines for IMLS Grants to
States Five-Year Evaluation.
OMB Number: 3137–0090.
Agency Number: 3137.
Respondents/Affected Public: State
and Territory Library Administrative
Agencies.
Total Estimated Number of Annual
Respondents: 12.
Frequency of Response: Once every
five years.
Estimated Average Burden per
Response: 18 hours.
Total Estimated Number of Annual
Burden Hours: 1,062 hours.
Total Annual Cost Burden $35,322.12.
Total Annual Federal Costs: $2,164.
Public Comments Invited: Comments
submitted in response to this Notice
will be summarized and/or included in
the request for OMB’s clearance of this
information collection.
Dated: March 4, 2026.
Suzanne Mbollo,
Grants Management Specialist, Institute of
Museum and Library Services.
[FR Doc. 2026–04509 Filed 3–6–26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7036–01–P

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Comment Request; Survey
of Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and
Engineering

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AGENCY: National Center for Science and

Engineering Statistics, National Science
Foundation.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
SUMMARY: The National Center for

Science and Engineering Statistics
(NCSES) within the U.S. National
Science Foundation (NSF) is

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announcing plans to request renewal of
the Survey of Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and
Engineering (OMB Control Number
3145–0062). In accordance with the
requirements of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, NSF is providing
opportunity for public comment on this
action. After obtaining and considering
public comments, NSF will prepare the
submission requesting that OMB
approve clearance of this collection for
three years.
DATES: Written comments on this notice
must be received by May 8, 2026 to be
assured consideration. Comments
received after that date will be
considered to the extent practicable.
Send comments to address below.
ADDRESSES: Contact Suzanne H.
Plimpton, Reports Clearance Officer,
U.S. National Science Foundation,
Randolph Building, 401 Dulany Street,
Alexandria, VA 22314; telephone (703)
292–7556; or send email to splimpto@
nsf.gov. Individuals who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf
(TDD) may call the Federal Information
Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–
8339, between 8:00a.m. and 8:00 p.m.,
Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.
You also may obtain a copy of the data
collection instrument and instructions
from Ms. Plimpton.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Survey of Graduate
Students and Postdoctorates in Science
and Engineering.
OMB Control Number: 3145–0062.
Expiration Date of Current Approval:
September 30, 2026.
Type of Request: Intent to seek
approval to extend an information
collection for three years.
Abstract: Established within NSF by
the America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act of 2010 § 505,
codified in the National Science
Foundation Act of 1950, as amended,
the National Center for Science and
Engineering Statistics (NCSES) serves as
a central Federal clearinghouse for the
collection, interpretation, analysis, and
dissemination of objective data on
science, engineering, technology, and
research and development for use by
practitioners, researchers, policymakers,
and the public.
The Survey of Graduate Students and
Postdoctorates in Science and
Engineering (GSS), sponsored by the
NCSES within NSF and the National
Institutes of Health, is designed to
comply with legislative mandates by
providing information on the
characteristics of academic graduate
enrollments in science, engineering, and
health fields. The GSS, which originated

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in 1966 and has been conducted
annually since 1972, is a census of all
departments in science, engineering,
and health (SEH) fields within academic
institutions with graduate programs in
the United States. This request to extend
the information collection for three
years is to cover the 2026, 2027, and
2028 GSS survey cycles. The
information collected by the GSS is
solicited under the authority of the
National Science Foundation Act of
1950, as amended and the America
COMPETES Reauthorization Act of
2010. Data collection starts each fall in
October and data are obtained primarily
through a Web survey. All information
will be used for statistical purposes
only. Participation in the survey is
voluntary.
The expected frame for the 2026 GSS
includes 645 institutions comprising
725 schools with 793 total Coordinators.
The GSS is the only national survey that
collects information on the
characteristics of graduate enrollment
and postdoctoral appointees (postdocs)
for specific SEH disciplines at the
department level. It collects information
on:
(1) Master’s and doctoral students’
ethnicity and race, citizenship, gender,
source and mechanism of financial
support (e.g., fellowships, traineeships,
assistantships) and enrollment status.
(2) Postdocs’ ethnicity and race,
citizenship, gender, source and
mechanism of financial support, type of
doctoral degree, and degree origin (U.S.
or foreign); and
(3) Other doctorate-holding nonfaculty researchers’ gender and type of
doctoral degree.
To improve coverage of postdocs, the
GSS periodically collects information
on postdocs employed in Federally
Funded Research and Development
Centers (FFRDCs) by ethnicity and race,
gender, citizenship, source and
mechanism of financial support, and
field of research. This survey of
postdocs at FFRDCs will be conducted
as part of the 2027 GSS survey cycle. In
this year, there will be an additional 41
coordinators contacted to respond to the
GSS.
The initial GSS data request is sent to
a designated respondent, the School
Coordinator, at each academic
institution in the fall. The School
Coordinators gather the data for all of
the reporting units at the institution.
Reporting units are comprised of the
departments, programs, research
centers, and health care facilities at each
institution. The School Coordinator may
upload a file with the requested data on
the GSS website, which will
automatically aggregate the data and

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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 45 / Monday, March 9, 2026 / Notices
populate the cells of the Web survey
instrument for each of the reporting
units. This method of data provision is
called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
The School Coordinator also may
upload partial data (e.g., student
enrollment information) and delegate
the provision of other data (e.g.,
financial support information) to the
appropriate reporting units at their
institution (unit respondents).
Institutions that do not want to use EDI
will be able to complete the survey
through manual entry of data (i.e.,
typing the data for each response item
on every unit) in the Web survey
instrument as in the past.
Data are disseminated annually on the
NCSES website (https://ncses.nsf.gov/
surveys/graduate-studentspostdoctorates-s-e) in the form of
approximately 100 data tables, and
approximately 60 supplemental tables
available on the NCSES table builder
(https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/builder/gss), a
3 to 5 page InfoBrief, and public use
files (https://ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data/
microdata/graduate-studentspostdoctorates-s-e). In addition, current
and historical data are available via the
NCSES Data Tools (https://
ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data). These data
tools combine GSS data with academic
sector data from both NCSES and the
National Center of Education Statistics
and allow for custom querying.
Use of the Information: The GSS data
are routinely provided to Congress and
other Federal agencies. GSS data are
also used in two congressionally
mandated NCSES publications:
Characteristics of Scientists and
Engineers (CES) (required under 42
U.S.C. 1885(d)) and the National
Science Board’s Science and
Engineering Indicators (https://

ncses.nsf.gov/indicators) (42 U.S.C.
1863(j)(1)). The GSS institutions
themselves are major users of the GSS
data. Professional societies such as the
American Association of Universities,
the Association of American Medical
Colleges, and the Carnegie Foundation
are also major users. Graduate
enrollment and postdoc data are often
used in reports by the national media.
With the help of the aforementioned
NCSES Data Tools, NSF reviews
changing enrollment levels to assess the
effects of NSF initiatives, track graduate
student support patterns, and analyze
participation in science and engineering
fields for targeted groups by discipline
and for selected groups of institutions.
In addition, the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) publish GSS data annually
in the NIH Data Book (https://
report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/).
Expected Respondents: The GSS is an
annual census of all eligible academic
institutions in the U.S. with graduate
programs in SEH fields. The response
rate is calculated based on the number
of reporting units (departments,
programs, research centers, and health
care facilities) that respond to the
survey. For reference, in 2024, the GSS
population consisted of 23,121 reporting
units at 635 academic institutions.
Based on recent cycles, NCSES expects
the annual response rate to be around 98
percent.
Estimate of Burden: For each GSS
survey cycle, both School Coordinators
and reporting-unit respondents (URs)
are asked to provide an estimate of how
long it took them to complete the data
collection. Coordinators at FFRDCs are
also asked about the hours required to
complete the Web instrument. In the
past three GSS cycles (2022–2024 data
collections), the average burden per

coordinator was 20.8 hours per cycle.
However, burden varies considerably
across respondents. The amount of time
it takes to complete the GSS data
depends to a large degree on the extent
to which the school’s records are
centrally stored and computerized. It
also depends on whether the institution
uses manual data entry or EDI to
provide the GSS data, the number of
SEH reporting units that need to be
reported by the institution, and the
degree to which URs within the
institution are used to collect and report
data.
To estimate burden for the next three
GSS data collection survey cycles (2026,
2027, and 2028), the GSS frame is split
by response method (EDI or manual
entry) and the number of reporting units
reported by the institution (more than
15 units are large reporters and 15 or
fewer units are small reporters). Table 1
presents burden estimates based on the
observed size of the institution and
burden estimates collected from the
2022–2024 GSS survey cycles. Average
burden is weighted by year and the
proportion of institutions that utilize
URs in reporting data to GSS.
The use of URs has a large impact on
GSS burden as it requires multiple
individuals at the school to respond to
the survey. To address the variance
between schools that use URs and those
that do not, UR burden was calculated
and included with the coordinator’s
burden when applicable. This
calculation is necessary because when a
school utilizes URs, the coordinators’
burden is minimal while the response
burden falls to individual URs. Average
UR burden was applied to all units at
schools utilizing URs and was then
added to the coordinator’s burden.

TABLE 1—GSS 2022–2024 TOTAL BURDEN BY INSTITUTIONAL REPORTING SIZE, DATA PROVISION METHOD, AND UNIT
RESPONDENT STATUS
Do not use URs
Institution type

Year-weighted
avg. burden
(hours)

Avg.
coordinators
per year

Year-weighted
avg. burden
(hours)

Avg.
coordinators
per year

Year-weighted
avg. burden
(hours)

332
20
320
125
798

32.2
25.8
8.2
6.8
18.4

10
8
3
8
28

171.1
78.5
30.2
16.1
88.9

342
28
322
133
825

36.1
40.3
8.3
7.4
20.8

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The expected frame for the 2026 GSS
includes 645 institutions comprising
725 schools with 793 total School
Coordinators (some institutions utilize
multiple School Coordinators based on
how they are organized). To estimate the

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All coordinators

Avg.
coordinators
per year

More than 15 units, EDI .........................
More than 15 units, Manual data entry ..
15 or fewer units, EDI .............................
15 or fewer units, Manual data entry .....
Average Estimated Total ........................

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Uses URs

burden for the 2026–2028 GSS survey
cycles, we assume a steady state in
terms of the use of EDI but based on
recent cycles we expect the number of
School Coordinators to increase by five
each cycle. Because newly eligible

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schools tend to have small numbers of
eligible units and students, we have
added five coordinators to the small
school manual data entry category.
Thus, we expect to have 793
coordinators in 2026, 798 in 2027, and

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Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 45 / Monday, March 9, 2026 / Notices

803 in 2028. The estimated burden per
respondent is approximately 21 hours
per School Coordinator; the exact
number is based on the distributions
shown in Table 1, adjusted for the
additional coordinators. Given the

historically high levels of participation,
a 100 percent school response rate is
used in these estimates. Since the
FFRDC postdoc data collection will take
place in 2027, the estimated burden for
those years will increase by 86 hours

from 41 FFRDCs (based on 100 percent
response rate in the 2023 survey with
the average burden of 2.1 hours per
FFRDC).

TABLE 2—GSS ESTIMATED RESPONSE BURDEN
Category

Respondents
(# of school
coordinators)

Total burden
(hours)

Total burden for 2026 ..............................................................................................................................................
Total burden for 2027 ..............................................................................................................................................
GSS institutions ................................................................................................................................................
FFRDCs ............................................................................................................................................................
Total burden for 2028 ..............................................................................................................................................
Potential future methodological studies (across all 3 survey cycles) .....................................................................

793
839
798
41
803
........................

16,886
17,009
16,923
86
16,960
2,000

Total estimated burden .....................................................................................................................................
Estimated average annual burden ...................................................................................................................

2,435
812

52,855
17,618

The total estimated respondent
burden of the GSS, including 2,000
hours for potential methodological
studies to improve the survey
procedures, will be 52,855 hours over
the three-cycle survey clearance period.
NCSES may review and revise this
burden estimate based on completion
time data collected during the 2025 GSS
survey cycle, which is currently in the
field.
Comments: Comments are invited on:
(a) whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of NSF,
including whether the information shall
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of
NSF’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information; (c)
ways to enhance the quality, use, and
clarity of the information on
respondents, including through the use
of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology;
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of
the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through
the use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Dated: March 5, 2026.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science
Foundation.
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[FR Doc. 2026–04579 Filed 3–6–26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555–01–P

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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Comment Request; Grantee
Reporting Requirements for the
Emerging Frontiers in Research and
Innovation Program
AGENCY: National Science Foundation.
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The National Science

Foundation (NSF) is announcing plans
to renew this collection. In accordance
with the requirements of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, we are providing
opportunity for public comment on this
action. After obtaining and considering
public comment, NSF will prepare the
submission requesting Office of
Management and Budget (OMB)
clearance of this collection for no longer
than 3 years.
DATES: Written comments on this notice
must be received by May 8, 2026 to be
assured consideration. Comments
received after that date will be
considered to the extent practicable.
Send comments to address below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Suzanne H. Plimpton, Reports Clearance
Officer, National Science Foundation,
Randolph Building, 401 Dulany Street,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314; telephone
(703) 292–7556; or send email to
[email protected]. Individuals who use
a telecommunications device for the
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–
800–877–8339, which is accessible 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year (including Federal holidays).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title of Collection: Grantee Reporting
Requirements for the Emerging Frontiers
in Research and Innovation Program.

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OMB Number: 3145–0233.
Expiration Date of Approval: June 30,
2026.
Type of Request: Revision to and
extension of approval of an information
collection.
Proposed Project
The Emerging Frontiers in Research
and Innovation (EFRI) program
recommends, prioritizes, and funds
interdisciplinary initiatives at the
emerging frontier of engineering
research and education. These
investments represent transformative
opportunities, potentially leading to:
new research areas for NSF, ENG, and
other agencies; new industries or
capabilities that result in a leadership
position for the country; and/or
significant progress on a recognized
national need or grand challenge.
Established in 2007, EFRI supports
cutting-edge research that is difficult to
fund through other NSF programs, such
as single-investigator grants or large
research centers. EFRI seeks high-risk
opportunities with the potential for a
large payoff where researchers are
encouraged to stretch beyond their
ongoing activities. Based on input from
workshops, advisory committees,
technical meetings, professional
societies, research proposals, and
suggestions from the research
community, the EFRI program identifies
those emerging opportunities and
manages a formal process for funding
their research. The emerging ideas
tackled by EFRI are ‘‘frontier’’ because
they not only push the understood
limits of engineering but actually
overlap multiple fields. The EFRI
funding process inspires investigators
with different expertise to work together
on one emerging concept.

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