Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 246 / Tuesday, December 22, 2020 / Notices 83627 

MREFC account, established in FY 

1995, is a separate budget line item that 

provides an agency-wide mechanism, 

permitting directorates to undertake 

large facility projects that exceed 10% of 

the Directorate’s annual budget; or 

roughly $70M or greater. Smaller 

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 

large 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 

organizations—to 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. Business 

Systems Reviews (BSR) of the National 

Science Foundation’s (NSF) Major 

Facilities are designed to provide 

reasonable assurance that the business 

systems (people, processes, and 

technologies) of NSF Recipients are 

effective in meeting administrative 

responsibilities and satisfying Federal 

regulatory requirements, including 

those listed in NSF’s Proposal & Award 

Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG). 

These reviews are not considered 

audits but are intended to be assistive in 

nature; aiding the Recipient in following 

good practices where appropriate and 

bringing them into compliance, if 

needed. A team of BSR Participants is 

assembled to assess the Recipient’s 

policies, procedures, and practices to 

determine whether, taken collectively, 

these administrative business systems 

used in managing the Facility meet NSF 

award expectations and comply with 

Federal regulations. 

The BSR Guide is designed for use by 

both our customer community and NSF 

staff for guidance in leading these 

reviews. The BSR Guide defines the 

overall framework and structure and 

summarizes the details outlined in the 

internal operating guidelines and 

procedures used by BSR Participants to 

execute the review process. 

Management principles and practices 

are specified for seven core functional 

areas (CFA) and are used by BSR 

Participants in performing these 

evaluations. Roles and responsibilities 

of the NSF stakeholders involved in the 

process are outlined in the BSR Guide 

as well as the expectations of the 

Recipient. 

This version of the Business Systems 

Guide aligns with the Uniform 

Guidance and the NSF Major Facilities 

Guide. 

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. 

The submission of Award Recipient 

and Project administrative business 

process and procedural documentation 

used in support of operations of the 

Major Facilities is part of the collection 

of information. This information is used 

to help NSF fulfill this responsibility in 

supporting merit-based research and 

education projects in all the scientific 

and engineering disciplines. The 

Foundation also has a continuing 

commitment to provide oversight on 

facilities design and construction which 

must be balanced against monitoring its 

information collection so as to identify 

and address any excessive review and 

reporting burdens. 

NSF has approximately twenty-four 

(24) Major Facilities in various stages of 

design, construction, operations and 

divestment. The need for a BSR and 

review scope is based on NSF’s internal 

annual Major Facility Portfolio Risk 

Assessment and the assessment of 

various risks factors. 

Burden to the Public: The Foundation 

estimates that approximately one and 

half (1.5) Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) 

are necessary for each major facility 

project to respond to a BSR 

requirements on an annual basis; or 

2,824 hours per year. With an average of 

four (4) conducted a year, this equates 

to roughly 5 FTEs or 11,296 public 

burden hours annually. 

Dated: December 17, 2020. 

Suzanne H. Plimpton, 

Reports Clearance Officer, National Science 

Foundation. 

[FR Doc. 2020–28220 Filed 12–21–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7555–01–P 

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Request for Information on Potential 

Concepts and Approaches for a 

National Strategic Computing Reserve 

(NSCR) 

AGENCY: Office of Science and 

Technology Policy (OSTP), Networking 

and Information Technology Research 

and Development (NITRD) National 

Coordination Office (NCO), National 

Science Foundation. 

ACTION: Request for information. 

SUMMARY: OSTP and the National 

Science and Technology Council’s 

(NSTC) Subcommittees on the Future 

Advanced Computing Ecosystem 

(FACE) and Networking and 

Information Technology Research and 

Development (NITRD) request input 

from interested parties on the goals, 

value, and necessary approaches for 

establishing a National Strategic 

Computing Reserve (NSCR). The NSCR 

may be envisioned as a coalition of 

experts and resource providers that 

could be mobilized quickly to provide 

critical computational resources 

(including compute, software, data, and 

technical expertise) in times of urgent 

need. This Request for Information will 

help inform potential attributes of a 

NSCR. 

DATES: Interested persons are invited to 

submit comments on or before 11:59 

p.m. (ET) on January 16, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in 

response to this notice may be sent by 

any of the following methods: 

• Email: nscr-rfi@nitrd.gov. Email 

submissions should be machinereadable and not be copy-protected. 

Submissions should include ‘‘RFI 

Response: National Strategic Computing 

Reserve’’ in the subject line of the 

message. 


jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES
83628 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 246 / Tuesday, December 22, 2020 / Notices 

• Fax: (202) 459–9673, Attn: Ji Lee. 

• Mail: Attn: Ji Lee, NCO, 2415 

Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 

22314, USA. 

Instructions: Response to this RFI is 

voluntary. Each individual or institution 

is requested to submit only one 

response. Submissions must not exceed 

10 pages in 12 point or larger font, with 

a page number provided on each page. 

Responses should include the name of 

the person(s) or organization(s) filing 

the comment. Responses to this RFI may 

be posted online at http://

www.nitrd.gov. Therefore, no business 

proprietary information, copyrighted 

information, or personally identifiable 

information should be submitted in 

response to this RFI. 

In accordance with FAR 15.202(3), 

responses to this notice are not offers 

and cannot be accepted by the 

Government to form a binding contract. 

Responders are solely responsible for all 

expenses associated with responding to 

this RFI. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ji 

Lee at nscr-rfi@nitrd.gov, 202–459–9674, 

or by post mailing to 2415 Eisenhower 

Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA. 

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 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, 

Monday through Friday. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

prompt, successful, and nimble 

deployment of computational resources 

(including expertise) via the COVID–19 

High-Performance Computing (HPC) 

Consortium has demonstrated its 

essential role in the Nation’s response to 

emergencies. This backdrop has led to 

the conceptualization of a National 

Strategic Computing Reserve (NSCR), 

comprising a coalition of experts and 

resource providers that could be 

mobilized quickly to provide critical 

computational resources (including 

compute, software, data, and technical 

expertise) in times of urgent need. 

Background Information: The 

COVID–19 HPC Consortium (https://

covid19-hpc-consortium.org) was 

formed in March 2020 and offers an 

example of how the consortium rapidly 

delivered scientific insights. The 

Consortium brought together the Federal 

Government, industry, and academic 

leaders to provide access to the world’s 

most powerful computational resources 

in support of COVID–19 research. 

Within its first week of existence, the 

Consortium instantiated an operational 

framework for providing computational 

resources for rapid crisis response. The 

Consortium effectively: 

• Worked together across institutional 

and organizational boundaries within 

government, industry, and academia to 

create a common portal to access 

computational resources and to coalesce 

ad hoc efforts in smaller ‘‘consortia’’ 

around the country; 

• Ramped up quickly to meet urgent 

computational resource requirements 

not easily available through other 

means; this ramp-up included the 

development and adaptation of review, 

matching and on-boarding processes for 

accessing these resources; 

• Set up a communications and user 

engagement framework for a worldwide 

community; and 

• Accelerated explorations in basic 

understanding of the SARS–CoV2 virus, 

its host interactions, strategies to 

mitigate its spread, and early-stage drug 

development. 

With this RFI, we seek to aggregate 

the lessons learned from the COVID–19 

HPC Consortium with other broader 

community input towards the potential 

design of a NSCR effort. 

Information Requested: Responders 

are asked to answer one or more of the 

following questions in the responses to 

the RFI: 

1. Deployment Scenarios: What are 

envisioned scenarios under which it 

would be beneficial to make NSCR 

computational resources available for 

use? What are relevant characteristics to 

consider regarding the design of triggers 

for activating and deactivating the 

NSCR? What approaches might the 

NSCR utilize to test readiness for such 

scenarios? Are there other barriers to 

activating NSCR that would need to be 

addressed? 

2. Computational Resources: By what 

means will the NSCR computational 

resources be recruited, vetted, and 

sustained for use when needed? What 

are appropriate incentives and 

mechanisms for compensation? What 

principles might be employed in 

assessing the suitability of resources for 

inclusion in the NSCR? What types of 

research (e.g., fundamental research, 

Controlled Unclassified Information 

research, proprietary research) should 

the NSCR be provisioned to support? 

3. NSCR Providers: How should the 

resource providers’ contributions to 

NSCR be determined? What approaches 

should guide the selection and 

allocation of the NSCR computational 

resources to users, and what roles do 

resource providers have in determining 

these approaches? By what means can 

the NSCR computational resource 

providers opt in or opt out on 

computational resource allocations? 

4. NSCR Users: By what means and 

with what principles should allocations 

for NSCR computational resources be 

considered? What should constitute 

eligibility to apply for computational 

resources? What kind of eligibility 

restrictions/selection criteria would be 

appropriate for users and the use cases 

of applications of NSCR? 

5. Community Formation: What types 

of community outreach and 

communications will help enhance the 

likelihood of connecting the NSCR 

computational resources to the relevant 

computational, scientific, and 

emergency-response communities? With 

what organizations and services should 

the NSCR coordinate to enhance its 

effectiveness? 

6. Partnership Agreements: What are 

key aspects of partnership agreements 

(e.g., access to results, intellectual 

property rights) that can help sustain 

the NSCR over time? 

7. Relationship to Other Strategic 

Reserves: Are there other strategic 

reserves that are relevant to NSCR? How 

can NSCR connect or interface with 

those reserves? What lessons can be 

learned from other strategic reserves 

that might inform the process of 

standing up a NSCR? 

Submitted by the National Science 

Foundation in support of the Office of 

Science and Technology Policy and the 

Networking and Information 

Technology Research and Development 

National Coordination Office on 

December 16, 2020. 

(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1861.) 

Suzanne H. Plimpton, 

Reports Clearance Officer, National Science 

Foundation. 

[FR Doc. 2020–28142 Filed 12–21–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7555–01–P 

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION 

SAFETY BOARD 

Sunshine Act Meeting 

TIME AND DATE: 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, 

January 12, 2021. 

PLACE: Virtual. 

STATUS: The one item may be viewed by 

the public through webcast only. 

MATTER TO BE CONSIDERED: 

64964—Pipeline Investigation Report— 

Atmos Energy Corporation Natural 

Gas-Fueled Explosion, Dallas, 

Texas, February 23, 2018 

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

Candi Bing at (202) 590–8384 or by 

email at bingc@ntsb.gov. 

Media Information Contact: Keith 

Holloway by email at keith.holloway@

ntsb.gov or at (202) 314–6100. 

This meeting will take place virtually. 

The public may view it through a live 


jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES