BRDS provides the only comprehensive R&D expense data covering all domestic non-farm businesses with at least 10 paid employees. It provides detailed statistics on global and domestic R&D expenses of U.S. based companies as well as statistics on the R&D workforce, intellectual property, and technology transfer activities. Policy officials from many Federal agencies rely on these statistics for essential information. 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.
The decrease in burden is primarily due to the reduction in sample size of 200,000 companies receiving the BRDI-M form. The BRDI-M form was introduced in 2016 to collect R&D and innovation data from companies with less than 10 employees. These data will be collected on the Annual Business Survey beginning in 2017.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.