The Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Survey and ABS are being combined to increase data quality, reduce respondent burden, and to allow the Census Bureau to operate more efficiently.
Not all businesses receiving the ABS will be asked about research and development (R&D). If your business does not conduct R&D and you are asked about it on the ABS, please enter $0 and you will automatically skip the related questions.
This year’s ABS will be mailed in May 2026.
The ABS measures business owner demographics, research and development (R&D), innovation, and other topics of interest among businesses in the United States. The ABS is a joint statistical project between the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Census Bureau.