[Federal Register: August 18, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 160)]
[Notices]               
[Page 48194]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18au08-28]                         

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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 R&D and Innovation Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0912.
    Form Number(s): BRDI-1, BRDI-1A.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Burden Hours: 155,450.
    Number of Respondents: 40,000.
    Average Hours Per Response: 3 hours and 53 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of 
Science Resources Statistics (SRS) and the U.S. Census Bureau's 
Economic Directorate have been engaged in a significant redesign of the 
Survey of Industrial Research and Development. To better understand how 
research and development (R&D) is actually conducted in today's 
innovative and global based economy, NSF has done extensive background 
work, starting with the Committee on National Statistics' Report 
Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the U.S. Economy. 
NSF has hosted numerous meetings/workshops with external data users 
both in the federal government and private sector, and has conducted a 
number of recordkeeping visits to companies to understand what is 
collectable. To better understand the issues in the present survey, NSF 
has done extensive review of both the statistical and subject matter 
aspects of it. Current plans for the redesigned survey call for five 
core sections, which will comprise the fixed elements. NSF and the 
Census Bureau have conducted four rounds of cognitive interviews to 
test the new content, and a final round of testing on the entire 
questionnaire will be conducted in July and August 2008. Results from 
these interviews have been included in a generic clearance submitted by 
Census. In order for the new data to be included, and actually be the 
centerpiece of the National Science Board's Science and Engineering 
Indicators: 2012 report, NSF has required delivery of results from the 
redesigned survey in December 2010. To ensure this delivery, there are 
a number of groups composed of Census Bureau and SRS staff that have 
been working on components of the redesigned survey, such as; content 
testing, instrument development, frame creation, and sampling, edit, 
imputation and estimation methodologies as well as tabulation design 
and data dissemination. In addition, NSF is consulting with Dr. Donald 
Dillman of Washington State University, a noted survey methodology 
expert and scholar, on best approaches to the extensive questionnaire 
redesign and methods of response.
    The result of this redesign will be a substantially new survey, and 
to emphasize that fact a new name has been selected, the Business R&D 
and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). This name was selected not only to 
highlight the emergence of the new survey, but also to emphasize that 
the survey covers the R&D and innovation activities of service as well 
as manufacturing companies. The 2008 BRDIS is being conducted as a 
pilot of the new survey, hence the possibility of releasing two years 
worth of data as reflected in the project schedule (section 16). 
Results from the 2008 BRDIS will be evaluated and may bring about 
changes for the 2009 BRDIS.
    The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 as amended authorizes 
and directs 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.'' The SIRD has 
been and the new BRDIS will be the vehicle with which NSF carries out 
the business portion of this mandate. NSF together with the Census 
Bureau, the collecting and compiling agent, analyze the data and 
publish the resulting statistics.
    Companies are the major performers of R&D in the United States, 
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. To develop policies designed to promote and enhance science 
and technology, past trends and the present status of R&D and 
innovation must be evaluated. The survey, as now designed, will be the 
platform through which data on innovation activities in the business 
sector will be collected. 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.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Section 182; National Science 
Foundation Act of 1950.
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
dhynek@doc.gov).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or e-mail (bharrisk@omb.eop.gov).

    Dated: August 13, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8-19059 Filed 8-15-08; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-07-P