48194 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 160 / Monday, August 18, 2008 / Notices 

Dated: August 13, 2008. 

Gwellnar Banks, 

Management Analyst, Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. E8–19058 Filed 8–15–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 

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 forprofit 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 HarrisKojetin, (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 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Foreign–Trade Zones Board 

[Docket 45–2008] 

Foreign–Trade Zone 72 Indianapolis, 

IN, Application for Subzone Status, 

GETRAG Transmission Manufacturing 

LLC (Automotive Transmissions) 

An application has been submitted to 

the Foreign–Trade Zones Board (the 

Board) by the Indianapolis Airport 

Authority, grantee of FTZ 72, requesting 

special–purpose subzone status for the 

automotive transmission manufacturing 

plant of GETRAG Transmission 

Manufacturing LLC (GETRAG), located 

in Tipton, Indiana. The application was 

submitted pursuant to the provisions of 

the Foreign–Trade Zones Act, as 

amended (19 U.S.C. 81a–81u), and the 

regulations of the Board (15 CFR part 

400). It was formally filed on August 8, 

2008. 

The GETRAG facility (up to 1,170 

employees/103 acres/891,000 sq.ft.) is 

located at 5880 State Road 28 in Tipton 


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