[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 216 (Wednesday, November 7, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55689-55690]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-24279]


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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.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: 2018-2020 Business Research & Development Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0912.
    Form Number(s): BRD-1.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 45,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 3 hours and 18 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 148,600.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau, with support from the 
National Science Foundation (NSF), plans to conduct the Business 
Research and Development Survey (BRDS) for the 2018-2020 survey years. 
The BRDS covers all domestic, non-farm, for-profit businesses with at 
least 10 paid employees. The BRDS provides the only comprehensive data 
on Research and Development (R&D) costs and detailed expenses by type 
and industry.
    The Census Bureau has conducted an R&D survey since 1957, 
collecting primarily financial information on the systematic work 
companies undertake to discover new knowledge or use existing knowledge 
to develop new or improved goods and services.
    Beginning in 2018, the BRDS will collect new data about R&D on 
artificial intelligence, geographic detail of companies' R&D workforce, 
and leased and temporary R&D employees.
    There is increasing interest among domestic policy-makers and in 
the international community, as well as among U.S. researchers in 
academia, government and industry, for more data on artificial 
intelligence.
    Domestic and foreign geographic information for R&D workforce will 
address Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) requests on inputs for 
enhanced estimation and evaluation of gross domestic product by state, 
foreign direct investment in the U.S., and U.S. direct investment 
abroad.
    As a result of the revision of the Frascati Manual: Guidance for 
Collecting and Reporting on R&D (OECD, 2015), countries are recommended 
to collect and separately report on both internal R&D workers (those 
who are employed directly by and are part of the R&D-performing 
business) and ``external'' R&D workers (consultants, contractors, and 
others who contribute directly to the R&D performance of the R&D-
performing business, but are not an employee of the business). The 
collection of these R&D employees is to provide internationally 
comparable US data on total business R&D workers.
    The 2018-2020 BRDS will continue to collect the following types of 
information:

[[Page 55690]]

     R&D expense based on accepted 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 intellectual property protection activities 
and technology transfer.
    Domestic and foreign researchers in academia, business, and 
government analyze and cite data from the BRDS. Among the federal 
government users are the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the 
White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). BEA 
includes R&D in the system of national accounts that measures the 
economic well-being of the country. BRDS data are key inputs into these 
accounts, which feed into the calculation of the U.S. Gross Domestic 
Product (GDP). The White House, in 2006, issued the American 
Competitiveness Initiative to ``increase investments in research and 
development, strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship.'' In 
support of this initiative and in response to legislative mandates, 
data on R&D are delivered to OSTP, primarily in the biennial National 
Science Board report Science and Engineering Indicators. Also, the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) produces a series of publications 
containing R&D data including the National Patterns of R&D Resources 
series, the S&E State Profile series, and the annual Business R&D and 
Innovation series. Special reports and other publications are also 
prepared.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: The survey is conducted under the authority of 
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,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-24279 Filed 11-6-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P