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

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 

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