July 21 -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Commerce, invites public input by September 19, 2023 regarding collecting key data and information from recipients of CHIPS funding for the purposes of monitoring progress and performance on selected projects; ensuring compliance with the terms of an award; general programmatic financial management activities; and executing long-term program evaluation initiatives.
The CHIPS Incentives Program is authorized by Title XCIX—Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (Pub. L. 116–283, referred to as the CHIPS Act or Act), as amended by the CHIPS Act of 2022 (Division A of Pub. L. 117–167). The CHIPS Incentives Program is administered by the CHIPS Program Office (CPO) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States Department of Commerce (Department).
CPO intends to collect key data and information in three primary categories: metrics, milestones, and reports. Metrics are quantitative measures that describe project progress or impact, and milestones are discrete action steps that are tied to target dates. Examples of data or information collected in the metric category may include but are not limited to number of jobs created, wafer starts per month, cumulative obligations, number of new customers contracts, or percentage of total childcare seats filled. Examples of milestone data or information collected may include but are not limited to construction milestones (e.g., permit issuance, utilities installation, fab groundbreaking, fab completion, etc.) or production go-live. Reports describe progress or details of a given content area in a narrative fashion.
The frequency and granularity of data and information collection is still under development by CPO. CPO will aim for a balance of utility to the government and burden on the recipient when determining the data and information to collect.
CPO intends to collect data from recipients electronically, although other methods, e.g., interviews, email, etc., may also be leveraged. The primary data collection tool will be Salesforce, which CPO leverages for the application process and will leverage for communication with recipients post award.
CHIPS Program Office:
https://www.nist.gov/chips
Draft data collection instrument and technical documentation requested from NIST by AEAStat.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-15537