### 12463 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 43 / Wednesday, March 5, 2014 / Notices

**DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE**

**Agricultural Research Service**

**Notice of Intent To Grant Exclusive**
**License**

**AGENCY :**  Agricultural Research Service,

USDA.

**ACTION :**  Notice of intent.

**SUMMARY :**  Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, intends to grant to Arkion Life Sciences LLC of New Castle, Delaware, an exclusive license to U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 13/755,671, ‘‘ULTRAVIOLET

STRATEGY FOR AVIAN REPELLENCY’’, filed on January 31,

2013.

**DATES :**  Comments must be received on or before April 4, 2014.

**ADDRESSES :**  Send comments to: USDA, ARS, Office of Technology Transfer, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Rm. 4–1174, Beltsville, Maryland 20705–5131.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  June Blalock of the Office of Technology Transfer at the Beltsville address given above; telephone: 301–504–5989.

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :**  The Federal Government’s patent rights in this invention are assigned to the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture. It is in the public interest to so license this
invention as Arkion Life Sciences LLC of New Castle, Delaware has submitted a complete and sufficient application for a license. The prospective exclusive license will be royalty-bearing and will comply with the terms and conditions
of 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR 404.7. The prospective exclusive license may be granted unless, within thirty (30) days from the date of this published Notice, the Agricultural Research Service receives written evidence and argument which establishes that the grant of the
license would not be consistent with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37

CFR 404.7.

Mojdeh Bahar,

Assistant Administrator.

[FR Doc. 2014–04881 Filed 3–4–14; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 3410–03–P**

**DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE**

**Economic Research Service**

**Notice of Request for Approval of a**
**New Information Collection**

**AGENCY :**  Economic Research Service,

USDA. **ACTION :**  Notice and request for

comments.

**SUMMARY :**  In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), this notice
announces the Economic Research Service’s intention to request approval
for a new information collection for the study of ‘‘Census of Users of the National Plant Germplasm System.’’ This is a new collection to provide information on usage and expectations of future use among requestors of genetic resources from USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System.

**DATES :**  Comments on this notice must be received by May 5, 2014 to be assured
of consideration.

Additional Information or Comments: Address all comments concerning this notice to Kelly Day Rubenstein, Resource and Rural Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mail Stop 1800, 1400 Independence Ave. SW., Washington, DC 20250. Comments may
also be submitted via fax to the attention of Kelly Day Rubenstein at 202–694–
4847 or via email to kday@ers.usda.gov. For further information contact Kelly Day Rubenstein at the address above, or telephone 202–694–5515.

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :** 

Title: Census of Users of the National Plant Germplasm System.

OMB Number: 0536–XXXX. Expiration Date of Approval: Three years from approval date.

Type of Request: New information
collection.

Abstract: The Census of Users of the National Plant Germplasm System will solicit data from the 7,207 institutional representatives who requested germplasm (i.e., living tissue from which plants can be grown) for any of ten crops including beans, barley, cotton, maize, sorghum, squash, soybeans, potato, rice, and wheat from the National Plant Germplasm System over a five year period. Each respondent will be asked to provide information via a web-based questionnaire. Legislative authority for the planned data collection is 7 U.S.C. 2204(a) and 7 U.S.C. 2661.

The information to be collected by the
‘‘Census of Users of the National Plant Germplasm System’’ is necessary to assess and understand the types and varieties of germplasm needed by
breeders and other scientists in both the public and private sectors. This study will provide data not currently available to program officials and researchers, thereby broadening the scope of economic analyses of genetic enhancement, and in turn, enhancing R&D and productivity research at the Economic Research Service (ERS), the National Plant Germplasm System, and the National Germplasm Resource Laboratory. The database would contain a wealth of empirical information on germplasm use in breeding and research. This includes information by specific crops (e.g., the use of landraces in corn breeding, the search for biotic tolerance in wheat); the quantity of germplasm by type and purpose; institutional needs for germplasm (both public and private); and requestors’ anticipated future use. This information will also assess biological traits that are needed for adaptation to climate change.Agriculture is highly geographyspecific, given that growing regions vary by rainfall and temperature conditions, pest and disease pressures, and soil types. Accordingly, plant breeders work to develop unique varieties for different geographic locations. As a result, each requestor of NPGS germplasm is likely to have one characteristic—geographic location—which is unique and important to that institution’s use of this germplasm, particularly in the context of global climate change. Moreover, it would be difficult to get adequate representation of the matrix of crops, germplasm types, and locations for some smaller crops (e.g., squash) without conducting a census of all germplasm requestors to the NPGS for any of the ten crops.

A web-based instrument will be used
for information collection. It will be kept as simple and respondent-friendly as possible. Responses are voluntary. The study instrument is based on a mailed paper-based instrument used in the 2000 study, ‘‘Demand for Genetic
Resources from the National Plant Germplasm System.’’ It was jointly developed by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Auburn University’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, the National Germplasm Resources Lab of the National Plant Germplasm System,
and the Economic Research Service. The instrument used in the 2000 study was administered by IFPRI and Auburn University and had a response rate of 35%. Study design for currently proposed study is consistent with that of the 2000 study in order to make comparisons across time. The frame for this census comprises all germplasm requestors to the NPGS for any of the ten crops in the last five years. Although the NPGS provided germplasm to any requestor free of cost, it also informed potential requestors and received their consent, at the time of a request was made, that their information could be used for activities relating to the service