When planning and evaluating programs and policies in local and regional innovation economies, a key measure is the amount of private business research and development (R&D) activity taking place, typically found in the Business Enterprise Research & Development Survey (BERD). The Census Bureau, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), is seeking public comment on planned updates to the BERD survey. BERD is instrumental in the federal government’s duties to calculate national gross domestic product, setting policy at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, and also informs researchers from academia, industry, and the nonprofit sector.