81 FR 88661 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 236 (December 8, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 236 (Thursday, December 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 88661-88662]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29394]


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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 and Development and Innovation Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0912.
    Form Number(s): BRDI-1, BRDI-1S, and BRDI-M.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 245,000.
    Average Hours Per Response: 43 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 176,500.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests a revision to the 
currently cleared Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS) 
information collection. This revision adds a form type [BRDI-M] to 
collect data on research and development (R&D) and innovation 
activities from small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
    In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on National 
Statistics (CNSTAT) reviewed the National Center for Science and 
Engineering Statistics' (NCSES) portfolio of R&D surveys and 
recommended that NCSES explore ways to measure firm innovation and 
investigate the incidence of R&D activities in growing sectors, such as 
small business enterprises not currently covered by BRDIS. As a result, 
Census plans to expand BRDIS to include very small businesses or 
microbusinesses through the use of the BRDI-M questionnaire.
    The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 as amended authorizes 
and directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the National 
Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) ``. . . 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 NCSES 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.
    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.
    In addition to adding the BRDI-M form, the following changes will 
be made to the 2016-2017 BRDIS compared to the 2015 BRDIS:
     Add item in type-of-cost questions to collect Royalty and 
licensing payments.
     Add questions collecting Basic-Applied-Development split 
of Total R&D paid for by the company and Total R&D paid for by others.
     Delete question on intellectual property protection.
     Add two Yes/No questions to help separately identify 
intellectual property transfer transactions with U.S. persons and 
foreign persons.
     Discontinue the pre-survey letter. This letter was planned 
to collect contact and company status information (merger, acquisition, 
etc.) from approximately 500 of the largest R&D companies.
    The forms used in the BRDIS are:
    Form BRDI-M. This form will be mailed to approximately 200,000 
small businesses with less than 10 employees. In addition to general 
business information--primary business activity (NAICS code), year 
business was formed, and number of employees--this form would collect 
data on R&D, innovation, employment, related activities (such as sales 
of significantly improved goods and services; operating agreements and 
licensing activities; technology transfer; patents and intellectual 
property; and sources of technical knowledge), measures of 
entrepreneurial strategies, and demographic characteristics of the 
entrepreneur.
    Form BRDI-1. This form will be mailed to approximately 7,000 
companies with a history of significant R&D and contains the full 
complement of BRDIS data items.
    Form BRDI-1(S). This form will be mailed to approximately 38,000 
companies and contains only the most high-level BRDIS data items.
    Information from BRDIS will continue to support the America 
COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 as well as other R&D-related 
initiatives introduced during the clearance period. Other initiatives 
that have used BRDIS statistics include: The Innovation Measurement-
Tracking the State of Innovation in the American Economy (U.S. 
Department of Commerce); Science of Science and Innovation Policy 
(NSF); and Rising Above the Gathering Storm (National Research 
Council).
    Policy officials from many Federal agencies rely on BRDIS 
statistics for essential information. For example, the Bureau of 
Economic Analysis (BEA) now incorporates R&D as fixed investment in the 
National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs). Businesses and trade 
organizations also rely on BRDIS data to benchmark their industries' 
performance against others. Each BRDIS data item is intended to address 
specific data user needs identified by NCSES through research, 
workshops, and regular interaction with data users.
    In previous years, BRDIS statistics were limited to companies with 
five or more U.S. employees. With the addition of BRDI-M, all companies 
with U.S. employees will be eligible for inclusion in providing 
statistics on R&D and innovation regardless of company size. Expanding 
the coverage of the BRDIS

[[Page 88662]]

will provide data users a more complete picture of R&D and innovation 
in the business sector and will allow policy makers and researchers to 
investigate questions about R&D, innovation, and competiveness in small 
businesses.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 8(b), 131, 
and 182, and Title 42, United States Code, Sections 1861-76 (National 
Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended).
    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.

Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-29394 Filed 12-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P