UK Tax Credits
TABLE OF CONTENTS
R&D Tax Relief
Innovate UK is the UK’s national funding agency for innovation and sustainability, supporting business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions. Cash grants and low-interest loans help businesses grow through offsetting or funding the development and commercialization of new products, processes and services.
Main Funding Programmes
Innovate UK Smart Grants
UK registered Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and their partners can apply for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. The programme is for world leading ideas, designed for swift, successful commercialization. Ideas need to be novel and disruptive in the marketplace.
Projects of 6-18 months must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19-36 months must have total project costs of between £100,000 and £2 million and must be collaborative. The Smart Grant can cover up to 70% of project costs depending upon size of your business.
| Headcount | Turnover | Balance Sheet | Funding Rate | |
| Micro | <10 | <£632k | <£316k | 70% |
| Small | <50 | <£10.2m | <£5.1m | 70% |
| Medium | <250 | <£36m | <£18m | 60% |
| Large | >250 | >£36m | >£18m | 11% |
Cash Grants for International Collaboration - £160m fund supporting international collaborations
More than 30 international collaborative programmes of Research, Innovation and Infrastructure with the latest example being the UK-Israel Eureka Bilateral Collaborative R&D programme whereby a UK business can apply for a cash grant of up to £250k for each project (up to 70% of project cost covered by grant, dependent upon size of business) to collaborate with an Israeli company on a business led R&D project resulting in a new product, industrial process or service. Projects must be innovative, involve a technological risk and target large global markets
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF)
The ISCF is made up of 23 challenges, covering the four industrial strategy themes below and is backed by £2.6b of public money with £3b in matched funding from the private sector.
- Clean growth: to maximize advantages from a global shift to clean growth, by supporting development, manufacture and use of low-carbon technologies, systems and services. Typical programmes: Transforming food production, transforming foundation industries, smart packaging, made smarter initiative
- Ageing society: to support innovation in technologies and services for an ageing population and improved therapies and treatments to keep citizens healthy in later life. Typical programmes: data-driven diagnosis and precision medicine, detection of disease, health ageing
- Future of mobility: to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint from transport, reduce congestion and improve mobility through advancing technologies such as automation and robotics. Typical programmes: Faraday Battery Challenge, future Flight, driving the electric revolution
- Artificial intelligence and data economy: to put UK at the forefront of AI and data revolution. Typical programmes: Audience of the future, commercializing quantum technologies, digital security by design and creative industries clusters
Catalysts - Joint cash grant programmes with Research Councils UK (RCUK)
Innovate UK works with the research councils to run four catalyst programmes: Agri-Tech Catalyst, Biomedical Catalyst, Energy Catalyst and Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst. These programmes are for UK businesses or research organisations that work in the respective sectors. Three main phases of project can be considered – (i) early-stage feasibility studies (ii) industrial research (prototyping, field trials and market testing) and (iii) late-stage testing in a real-life environment. Typical project costs between £50k and £1.5m for a project between 6-24 months. The Innovate UK Catalyst grant can cover up to 70% of project costs depending upon size of your business.
