I can't speak to the issue of predominantly undergraduate institutions, but I can speak to the completion-time issue. I estimated Duke's completion time this year at 250 hours. In our case, with a vast number of projects to report on, we rely on database tools to run our reports, all of which had to be extensively changed and added onto as a result of the revamping of this year's survey, compared to that administered in previous years.

Even without all the changes this time, unless your institution's financial reporting systems happen to align precisely with the survey instrument, you'll have a lot of work to do attempting to wrangle your data into the form required.

Ken

Ken Macdonald
Assistant Director
Office of Research Support
Duke University
2200 W. Main St., Ste. 710
Durham, NC  27705  USA
+1 919 681 5988

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Murphy
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 1:41 PM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] NSF "HERD"

The due date for submitting NSF’s annual R&D survey is Friday.  The due date last year was Feb 4, but because the return rate was so low it was ultimately extended to May 6 as the company conducting the survey followed up with repeated phone calls and e-mails to non-respondents.
(This background info is provided at
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyrdexpenditures/).

In recent years, courtesy of the Paperwork Reduction Act, we were told the survey would take about 24 hours to complete and I found that it did.  This year with their modified survey known as “HERD,” they project completion of the survey will take 48 hours.  FORTUNATELY, this year it is finally acknowledged on the cover to the survey that completion is “entirely voluntary.”

I can understand the major research universities completing the survey, but what about predominantly undergraduate institutions with limited externally-sponsored research operations and insufficient staffing to voluntarily take on a 48-hour project?  My wish would be for a similar survey – perhaps conducted bi-annually, but with greater relevance to PUIs.

What’s the word on HERD, the Higher Education R&D survey?  Is everyone completing it?

Tom

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