State Government R&D Survey

ATTACHMENT A

The Honorable <>
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A Message from the Directors
U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
We write to request that your office appoint a coordinator for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Survey of State
Government Research and Development. The U.S. Census Bureau is collaborating with the National Science
Foundation (NSF) to collect research and development (R&D) expenditure information from the 50 states, the
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. You may recall that your state participated in the FY2019 survey. Your
survey response will be compiled by the Census Bureau and forwarded to the NSF, the federal agency
charged with collecting and reporting national R&D statistics. These statistics are used to measure states’
contributions to our Nation’s science and technology base, a building block of a strong U.S. economy.
Your state coordinator will be asked to confirm the names and contact information for your state
departments and agencies that are most likely to fund or conduct R&D activities. These departments and
agencies will receive a questionnaire asking about their R&D activities. The coordinator also will serve as the
authorizing official for your state’s response after all departments and agencies complete their survey
questionnaires. The coordinator may be called upon to assist the Census Bureau and the NSF in obtaining
responses from any non-responding agencies.
To ensure the NSF issues the most accurate statistics for your state’s R&D investments, it is important that all
agencies selected for the survey respond, even if they do not have qualifying R&D expenditures for fiscal
year ending in 2020. Since each state is a unique legal and economic entity there are no standard methods
for imputing R&D for any non-responding agencies. Therefore, any non-response may contribute to an
undercount in official U.S. government statistics of your state’s public investments in R&D.
Please contact the Census Bureau with the name and contact information for your state coordinator by emailing [email protected] or calling 1-888-340-7525. Please respond by August 31, 2020. For the FY2019
survey, <> served as your state’s survey coordinator.
Thank you in advance for your help to ensure an accurate measurement of our Nation’s R&D expenditures by
state governments. You can find previous survey results and additional information at http://www.nsf.gov/
statistics/srvystaterd/.
Sincerely,

Emilda Rivers
Director
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation

Steven D. Dillingham
Director
U.S. Census Bureau

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OMB Number
This collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The eight- digit OMB
approval number is 0607-0933. Without this approval, we could not conduct this survey.
Authority and Confidentiality
Title 13, United States Code, Section 8(b), Title 42 United States Code, Sections 1861-76 (National Science
Foundation Act of 1950, as amended), and Section 505 within the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act
of 2010 authorize the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct this collection on behalf of the National Science
Foundation and to request your assistance. These data are subject to provisions of Title 13, United States
Code, Section 9(b), which exempts data that are customarily provided in public records from rules of
confidentiality.
Burden Estimate Statement
We estimate this collection of information to average 5 minutes per response. Send comments regarding this
burden estimate or any other aspect of this voluntary collection of information, including suggestions for
reducing this burden to: ERD Survey Comments 0607-0933, U.S. Census Bureau, 4600 Silver Hill Road, Room
ERD-6H128, Washington, DC 20233. You may e- mail comments to [email protected]; use ERD
Survey Comments 0607-0933 as the subject.