Ireland stands as a prominent global hub for Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) initiatives. The RD&I grant, like the R&D Tax Credit, plays a pivotal role in funding companies engaged in R&D endeavours. This grant is backed by both Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, and it supports businesses in their pursuit of research and innovation. These organisations maintain a consistent interpretation of eligible R&D activities, concentrating on industrial research and experimental development aimed at advancing new or enhanced products, processes, and services with significant global market potential.
Enterprise Ireland takes a look at two eligible project criteria which are R&D projects and business innovation projects. Similar to the R&D Tax Credit, the R&D projects must be a form of technical challenge that is trying to develop a new product, service, and/or process. With the business innovation projects, a company has implemented new services or has changed the production method/business model to existing processes. In both cases when applying for the RD&I Grant, Enterprise Ireland allows for only six projects to be claimed. This is the maximum, but Enterprise Ireland does encourage companies to focus mainly on the innovation portion of projects rather than the entire program developed.
IDA Ireland’s main focus with the RD&I grant is to increase job growth throughout Ireland by funding R&D projects. As Enterprise Ireland has a category for business innovation projects, with IDA Ireland, this is strictly related to R&D projects that are either experimental development or industrial research. Routine work of any kind is not considered an innovation or development and will not be accepted for this funding. Multiple projects can be submitted to IDA Ireland as well as multiple work packages. Multiple projects are defined as two separate R&D projects with their own technological success. Multiple work packages are one project with multiple objectives that the company is trying to achieve.
Similar to the R&D Tax Credit submitted to Irish Revenue, The RD&I Grant focuses on a strong technical report to underline and articulate your companies’ innovation. A weak technical report will lead to a rejected funding opportunity. The ABGi service offering provides:
1. Access to our in-house PhDs, Engineers & Developers that will collate, analyse, process, and draft the grant technical application.
2. Our consultants conduct interviews with your technical leads, identify the eligible projects as well as determine which projects can be amalgamated.
3. A scientific and technical data compilation phase will occur where our consultants narrate and draft the necessary reports.
An advantage to preparing such technical reports for grants is the use of them when the client is also looking to take advantage of the R&D Tax Credit program. Since the RD&I Grant focuses on the present or future R&D projects, the technical projects can be potentially used when claiming the R&D Tax Credit as well. Please note that the fund received through the RD&I grant schemes will be net of the R&D TC expenditure.
For further information on how ABGi Ireland can assist your company in successfully preparing an RD&I Grant application, please contact us today.