80 FR 22703 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 78 (April 23, 2015)

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 78 (Thursday, April 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22703-22705]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-09433]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Business Research & Development and Innovation Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0912.
    Form Number(s): BRDI-1 and BRD-1S.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 45,000.
    Average Hours per Response: BRDI-1--14.85 hours; BRD-1(S)--.59 
hours.
    Burden Hours: 126,500.
    Needs and Uses: Companies are the major performers of research and 
development (R&D) in the United States (U.S.), accounting for over 70 
percent of total U.S. R&D outlays each year. A consistent business R&D 
information base is essential to government officials formulating 
public policy, industry personnel involved in corporate planning, and 
members of the academic community conducting research. In order to 
develop policies designed to promote and enhance science and 
technology, past trends and the present status of R&D must be known and 
analyzed. Without comprehensive business R&D statistics, it would be 
impossible to evaluate the health of science and technology in the 
United States or to make comparisons between the technological progress 
of our country and that of other nations.
    The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 as amended authorizes 
and directs National Science Foundation (NSF) ``. . . to provide a 
central clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, and analysis 
of data on scientific and engineering resources and to provide a source 
of information for policy formulation by other agencies of the Federal 
government.'' One of the methods used by the NSF to fulfill this 
mandate is The Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS)--the primary 
federal source of information on R&D in the business sector. The NSF 
together with the Census Bureau, the collecting and compiling agent, 
analyze the data and publish the resulting statistics.
    The NSF has published annual R&D statistics collected from the 
Survey of Industrial Research and Development (SIRD) (1953-2007) and 
BRDIS (2008-2013) for 60 years. The results of the survey are used to 
assess trends in R&D expenditures by industry sector, investigate 
productivity determinants, formulate science and tax policy, and 
compare individual company performance with industry averages. This 
survey is the Nation's primary source for international comparative 
statistics on business R&D spending.
    The BRDIS will continue to collect the following types of 
information:
     R&D expense based on accounting standards.
     Worldwide R&D of domestic companies.
     Business segment detail.
     R&D related capital expenditures.
     Detailed data about the R&D workforce.
     R&D strategy and data on the potential impact of R&D on 
the market.
     R&D directed to application areas of particular national 
interest.
     Data measuring innovation, and intellectual property 
protection activities.
    The following changes were made to the 2014 BRDIS from the 2013 
BRDIS.
     Section 1: Moved foreign ownership question up above 
ownership question. Changed the EIN of owner to the ownership question 
instead of the foreign ownership question.
     Section 2: Added some questions to gather data on monetary 
gifts to academia.
     Section 6: Added a question on revenue from sale of 
patents. Added two questions in regards to how much the company paid 
others to purchase patents or license patents. Removed the question on 
how many agreements company entered into. Information from the BRDIS 
will continue to support the following initiatives:
    Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP), the NSF's 
program to foster the development of the knowledge, theories, data, 
tools, and human capital needed to underwrite fundamental research that 
creates new explanatory models and analytic tools designed to inform 
the Nation's public and private sectors about the processes through 
which investments in science and engineering are transformed into 
social and economic outcomes.
    America Competes Act of 2007, which calls for the doubling of 
funding for

[[Page 22704]]

basic research in physical sciences, improvement of math instruction, 
and expansion of low-income students' access to Advance Placement (AP) 
coursework through AP/International Baccalaureate Program to, as The 
White House fact sheet on the America Competes Act says, ``encourage 
scientists to explore promising and critical areas such as 
nanotechnology, supercomputing, and alternative energy sources.''
    Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Research Council 
(NRC) report that recommends increasing America's talent pool by 
improving K-12 math and science education; sustaining and strengthening 
the Nation's commitment to long-term basic research; developing and 
recruiting top students, scientists and engineers from U.S. and abroad; 
and ensuring that the U.S. is the premier place in the world for 
innovation.
    Policy officials from many Federal agencies rely on these 
statistics for essential information. For example, total U.S. R&D 
expenditures statistics have been used by the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis (BEA) to update the System of National Accounts and, in fact, 
the BEA recently has incorporated R&D as a direct component of the 
System. Accurate R&D data are needed to continue the development and 
subsequent updates to this detailed satellite account. Also, a data 
linking project has been designed to augment the Foreign Direct 
Investment (FDI) data collected by BEA. The initial attempt to link the 
SIRD data with BEA's FDI benchmark files was successful, and plans now 
call for the annual linkage of the R&D data to the FDI and U.S. Direct 
Investment Abroad (USDIA) data. Further, the Census Bureau links data 
collected by the Survey with other statistical files. At the Census 
Bureau, historical company-level R&D data are linked to a file that 
contains information on the outputs and inputs of companies' 
manufacturing plants. Researchers are able to analyze the relationships 
between R&D funding and other economic variables by using micro-level 
data.
    Individuals and organizations access the survey statistics via the 
Internet in annual National Center for Science and Engineering 
Statistics (NCSES) InfoBriefs that announce the availability of 
statistics from each cycle of the Survey and provide detailed 
statistical table reports that contain all of the statistics the NSF 
produces from the Survey. Information about the kinds of projects that 
rely on statistics from the Survey is available from internal records 
at the NSF's NCSES. In addition, survey statistics are regularly cited 
in trade publications and many researchers use the survey statistics 
from these secondary sources without directly contacting the NSF or the 
Census Bureau. Some of the users of the survey statistics and the types 
of information they request are described below.

Government Users

    Government policy officials who are involved in assessing the role 
of the Federal government in promoting economic growth use R&D 
statistics in their decision-making processes since R&D results affect 
technological and economic progress. Members of Congress make extensive 
use of R&D statistics in preparing tax legislation, contacting the NSF 
or the Census Bureau directly through their own staffs, one of the 
House or Senate science committees, or the Congressional Research 
Service.
    The NSF staff also work closely with the Office of Science and 
Technology Policy (OSTP), providing R&D statistics and indications of 
emerging trends to assist the OSTP staff in their analyses of the 
status of science and technology in the United States. In addition, the 
NSF has frequent contact with the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Congressional 
Research Service (CRS), and the Congressional Joint Economic Committee 
which use R&D statistics in their studies.
    Statistics produced from the Survey also have been requested by 
officials from other Federal government and quasi-governmental agencies 
including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, 
Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor, State, Treasury; the Bureau 
of Economic Analysis; Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); Congressional 
Joint Committee on Taxation; Consumer Products Safety Commission; 
Environmental Protection Agency; Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, 
Dallas, New York, and San Francisco; Government Accountability Office; 
Government Publishing Office; International Trade Administration; 
International Trade Commission; National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration; National Institute of Standards and Technology; 
National Institutes of Health; National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration; Oakridge National Laboratory; Office of Naval Research; 
President's Council of Economic Advisors; Office of Trade Policy 
Analysis; U.S. Federal Trade Commission; U.S. Patent Office; and U.S. 
Small Business Administration.
    As states and local governments seek to attract high-tech 
industries to their areas, the NSF and the Census Bureau are frequently 
asked to provide R&D funding and employment figures. Among the state 
governments and state organizations requesting industry R&D statistics 
have been Alabama, Arkansas, California Energy Commission, Center for 
Innovative Technology (VA), Georgia, Indiana, Maine Development 
Foundation, Maine Science and Technology Foundation, Maryland, 
Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Michigan Department of Labor and 
Economic Growth, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Minnesota, 
Mississippi, New Jersey Research and Development Council, New York 
State Department of Taxation and Finance, New York State Economic 
Development Authority, North Carolina, North Dakota Department of 
Commerce, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Southern Growth 
Policies Board (representing Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, 
Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia), and Utah.
    Information and statistics from the Survey also are supplied to the 
NSF internal organizations. For example, survey statistics are used in 
the ``Research and Development: National Trends and International 
Linkages'' and ``Industry, Technology, and the Global Marketplace'' 
chapters of the Congressionally mandated Science and Engineering 
Indicators series, a biennial report in which the National Science 
Board continues its effort to describe quantitatively the condition of 
U.S. science and research. Survey results are also included in the 
NSF's annual National Patterns of R&D Resources tabulations.

International Users

    The international community uses R&D spending information as part 
of its comparisons of the economic performance among nations. U.S. R&D 
statistics are compiled in a format that can be compared with those of 
other countries. These statistics are transmitted to the Organization 
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that relies on the 
Survey as its primary source for business R&D statistics for the United 
States. Also, R&D statistics are used by multi-national committees and 
subcommittees studying and maintaining the North American Industry 
Classification System (NAICS) and North American Product Classification 
System (NAPCS).
    Other international and foreign entities that have requested 
statistics on U.S. business R&D expenditures include the Brazilian 
National Council for

[[Page 22705]]

Scientific and Technological Development, Canadian Ministry of Treasury 
and Economics, Delegation of the European Communities, Department of 
State and Regional Development (Australia), Department of Technology 
Policy (Austria), European Commission's Joint Research Center, French 
Embassy, French Federal Institute of Research, Embassy of Finland, 
Embassy of Germany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,, Industry Canada, 
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (Madrid), National Technology Agency 
of Finland, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of 
Canada, Puerto Rico Planning Board, Office of the Representative of the 
Republic of Taiwan, Statistics Canada, and Statistics Quebec.

Business Users

    Although the primary purpose of the survey is to provide accurate 
R&D statistics for well-informed public policy decisions, business 
users also benefit from the survey figures, and one of the goals of the 
redesign is to increase the utility of the information for companies. 
There is a special obligation to keep the survey relevant to industry 
users particularly because business personnel spend time answering the 
annual questionnaire. Firms and trade associations in all industries, 
whether large or small in terms of R&D performance, are interested in 
making intra-industry comparisons, as well as comparing other 
industries' performance with their own.
    Each year the NSF and Census Bureau receive many requests for R&D 
information from business users. Some of the industries where users who 
have requested information are aerospace, telecommunications, 
healthcare, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, software, and motor vehicles.
    In addition to industry researchers who utilize the R&D statistics 
directly from the NSF Web site and publications, there are many who use 
the Survey's tabulations in their own trade reports.
    Other trade publications that regularly print statistics directly 
from the Survey include multiple Fortune 500 companies and various 
trade associations.
    Unions also consider business R&D statistics relevant to their 
members' well-being. R&D statistics also are used by research 
organizations devoted to the study of industry, R&D, science and 
technology and related topics.

Other Users

    Research undertaken at universities on innovation and economic 
growth has relied heavily on the detailed R&D time series from the 
Survey. Research projects that have used R&D statistics obtained from 
the Survey have been conducted at many colleges and universities.
    In addition, inquiries are regularly received from the news media. 
And finally, Internet sites continue to link with the Survey's results.
    In summary, each item in the Survey has been the subject of 
research by someone interested in business R&D performance. Although 
the consumers of the R&D statistics from the Survey are diverse, there 
is one common element underlying all the uses of the survey 
statistics--an attempt to gain a better understanding of some aspect of 
the nation's scientific and technological resources. The detailed 
statistics provided by the Survey are the most complete set of elements 
for assessing the impact of R&D on business development and the 
nation's economy.
    The total burden estimate for the 2014 BRDIS has increased due to 
an increase in amount of companies that are receiving the longer Form 
BRDI-1 from 3,000 to 7,000. The increase in the number of companies 
receiving form BRDI-1 is the result of lowering the R&D threshold for 
receiving the longer form from $7 million to $1 million. At the same 
time the burden on companies receiving the shorter form has been 
reduced. Prior to 2012 the shorter form (then called Form BRDI-1A) was 
32 pages (168 response fields). The current shorter form (Form BRD-1S) 
is 8 pages (61 response fields).
    The increase in burden also reflects a slight increase in the total 
number of companies in the sample from the prior OMB submission.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 182, 224 and 225; NSF 
Act of 1950.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: April 17, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-09433 Filed 4-22-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P