top stories
Innovation and Research
The recent Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth paper highlights the continued importance of R&D to the UK economy. It stressed the commitment to the R&D support announced in the autumn statement and stated “We will improve incentives for companies to innovate – especially SMEs. Beyond our successful changes to the SME R&D Tax Credit, we will invest an additional £75 million to support small business innovation including additional funding for Smart, grants that support SME research and development. We will implement a new innovation voucher programme, enabling SMEs to engage with universities and wider external knowledge base providers, and will invest more in the Small Business Research Initiative, helping more SMEs to win government contracts for their innovative products and services. Additionally we will increase our funding to support design driven innovation. We will also encourage large company research and development by making the R&D Tax Credit‘ above the line’ from April 2013.” Details of the SMART grants process can be found on the Technology strategy board website. The next grant assessment date is 1st March with applicants being informed one month after the batch assessment date with respect to the funding decision.
This announcement follows on from earlier R&D tax credit announcements and changes lowering the cost of protection against small claims. The Patents County Court (Financial Limits) Order (No.2) 2011 provided from October that trademark and copyright claims under £500,000 must be heard in the Patents County Court (PCC).
Click here to read the full report.
Click here for ACCA's guidance on the R & D tax credt regime.
Click here for further useful R&D links.