Grants for Research, innovation and product development

With the New Year holiday now behind us, I thought it would be a good idea to post up a blog to let all of our followers know about the current situation with obtaining grants for research, innovation and the development of new products.

InnovateUK – Formally the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is a really good place to start looking for funding.  Funding is done through competitions.  Some are quite focussed on a specific area of science or expertise, some are focussed more on a specific stage of the development process.  The preferred markets are emerging and enabling technologies, health and life sciences, infrastructure systems, and manufacturing and material.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-ukfor more information.

R&D Tax relief/credits – If you are liable for corporation tax, i.e. you are a UK trading company, you are potentially eligible for R&D tax relief/credits. For SME’s this could give you up to 33% back, for larger corporations up to 10%.  A project qualifies if it constitutes an "advance” in science and technology, and that’s defined as an improvement in overall knowledge and capability in a technical field.  An example to clarify: You wouldn’t get funding for a project to re-design a screwdriver with a new handle, but you might qualify if the handle was made of a new material with technical properties.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-research-and-development-rd-relieffor more information.

Horizon 2020 – is an EU framework programme for research and innovation.  The UK Government has chosen to underwrite Horizon 2020 projects beyond the UK’s exit from the EU so it looks like funding for UK companies is still possible but I would advise checking the situation if you’re thinking about applying.

Go to https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020for general information.

The 2016/17 programme is here http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_2017/main/h2020-wp1617-intro_en.pdf

Eurostars – is a research and development funding programme aimed at SME’s.  It is a joint venture between Eureka and the European Commission through Horizon 2020.  In the UK, it is only research performing SME’s are eligible and this looks to be in conjunction with Innovate UK.

Go to https://www.eurostars-eureka.eu/about-eurostarsfor more information.

The Patent Box – This is a relatively new scheme to allow companies that hold Patents to claim a reduced corporation tax rate on profits made from IP.  As of April 2013, a company can reduce CT to 10%.  Companies that are licensing IP from an IP holder can also claim this lower tax but must meet the criteria.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-the-patent-boxto find out more.