Where we work · United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the reliable money is statutory, and the deadline has nothing to do with your research.
Nobody awards the main early-stage instrument here and nobody can refuse it on merit — but a first-time claimant who misses one six-month deadline loses the whole period. Meanwhile the grant layer is devolved, and England has no agency of its own. We work with founders across all four nations remotely from Hyderabad, in English. We have no office in the United Kingdom and no company registered there, and we say so plainly.
A tax rule, a calendar, and a cap in the wrong currency.
20%
The merged R&D expenditure credit, for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024. It is liable to corporation tax as trading income, so it is not what reaches the bank. HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS
30%
The share of total expenditure that must be R&D before a loss-making small company can use Enhanced R&D Intensive Support instead. Connected companies count towards the total. HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS
Six months
From the end of the period of account to notify an intention to claim. Past it the rules prevent the claim being made at all, unless the company claimed within the previous three years. HMRC, CIRD183000
EUR 300,000
The three-year de minimis cap on the intensive-support benefit for a loss-making company with a registered office in Northern Ireland. A company registered in Great Britain has no equivalent cap. HMRC, ERIS for Northern Ireland SMEs
GBP 20,000 + 300%
The ceiling on the credit: a fixed amount plus three times the period's PAYE and National Insurance liabilities. Development done off the local payroll runs into it. HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS
40,325
Claims across all R&D schemes in 2024–25, down 17% year on year, with small-company claims down an estimated 19% — while total support rose 5% to GBP 8.2bn. HMRC statistics, Sep 2026
The money is growing and the number of claimants is shrinking. A founder who reads "GBP 8.2bn of R&D support" and assumes a share of it is waiting has read a number about large companies. The practical questions here are a diary date and a ratio, neither of which is about how good the research is.
Innovation funding is partly devolved, and England has no agency of its own.
Corporation tax is not devolved, so the statutory instruments above apply in all four nations. Grant funding is a different matter, and a page describing only the state-wide picture would be visibly wrong to a reader in Edinburgh or Belfast.
| Nation | Its own scheme | Where that stood when we last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | SMART: SCOTLAND, run by Scottish Enterprise. Feasibility studies for high-risk development, at up to 70% of eligible costs for a small enterprise and 60% for a medium one, to a maximum grant of GBP 100,000. The business must own the intellectual property the project generates. Scottish Enterprise, SMART: SCOTLAND | Not accepting new applications. The agency says a replacement fund will be launched in late autumn 2026 and does not say whether the rates or the ceiling carry over, so we do not assume they will. Scottish Enterprise, SMART: SCOTLAND |
| Wales | The SMART Flexible Innovation Support capital equipment fund, from the Welsh Government: grants between GBP 50,000 and GBP 250,000 towards buying and installing machinery and equipment, open to businesses, universities, colleges, research organisations, the third sector and health boards operating in Wales. Welsh Government, 21 Aug 2026 | The round closed on 25 September 2026, with decisions expected from the week beginning 26 October. Since 2023 the programme reports supporting 171 organisations with more than GBP 20.1 million. Welsh Government, 21 Aug 2026 |
| Northern Ireland | A business innovation grant run by Invest Northern Ireland with Innovate NI, at a low five-figure maximum and up to 70% of eligible project costs, restricted to businesses that are not already Invest NI clients and gated on an innovation assessment first. | The round closed in early September 2026. We could not reach the agency's own pages, so we describe the shape rather than quoting figures as the agency's — and this is the one row here that is not primary. |
| England | No national equivalent. England has no devolved innovation agency, so a company there has the state-wide layer and whatever its combined authority or local growth body offers. | We have not surveyed the sub-national programmes, and their absence from this page is not evidence they are absent. |
The one grant open to any sector is not open.
- There is no open any-sector call. The funding agency's own opportunity listing, filtered to its open opportunities, returned no results when we checked. The sector-agnostic grant that used to sit here has not run a new round since its last one closed, and no reopening date has been published. UKRI funding finder
- The newer growth programme is gated on an investor, not on an agency. Its second round, a fund of GBP 100 million for single applicants, required that the applicant "have been invited to apply by an investor from our pool of selected investor partners". It opened in December 2025 and closed in February 2026. UKRI, Growth Catalyst round two
- Which leaves the statutory route as the dependable one. That is the inversion worth planning around. In most of the markets on this site the grant is the thing you work towards and the tax relief is the afterthought. Here it is the other way round.
- We do not know why the grant is paused, so we do not say. Several advisory firms report a closure date and a redesign, one reports a permanent withdrawal, and we found no agency page stating any of it. What is checkable is that nothing any-sector is open today.
Scope this honestly: a first-year plan that assumes a grant will be available is, on today's evidence, assuming something the state is not currently offering to all comers. That is not a reason to stop building. It is a reason to fund the build differently.
A first claim can be lost before it is made.
This is the part that catches founders, and it is not a judgement call.
- The window runs from the start of the period of account. It ends on the last day of the six months beginning the day after that period ends. For a company whose first year closes on 31 December, the notification is due by the following 30 June. HMRC, CIRD183000
- Missing it does not reduce the claim. It prevents it. The rules stop a claim being made after the notification period, unless an exemption applies, and the quality of the research is not one of the exemptions. HMRC, CIRD183000
- The exemption is narrower than it sounds. A company is excused if it made a claim in the three years ending on the last day of the notification period — and claims for earlier periods made by later amendment are disregarded. "We claimed once, a while back" is not an answer. HMRC, CIRD183000
- Which scheme applies is a budget decision, not a research one. The intensive-support route needs research spending at 30% or more of total expenditure, counting connected companies. Hiring a commercial lead or funding a launch can push a company under the threshold with the research unchanged — and the two routes differ on whether the credit is taxable. HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS
- And the payroll ceiling shapes who does the work. The credit cannot exceed a fixed amount plus three times the period's PAYE and National Insurance. A development plan built on contractors or an offshore team can reach a ceiling the same plan on local payroll would not. HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS
We are not tax advisers and we do not file anything. We raise this because it is a planning constraint with a date on it: the ratio is inside a founder's control and the deadline is not, so both belong in the operating plan rather than in the year-end conversation with the accountant.
One cap applies to part of the state and not the rest.
Stated as the tax mechanic it is. We describe what the guidance says and the decision it forces, and nothing else.
- The registered office is the test. For a loss-making research-intensive small company with a registered office in Northern Ireland, the Finance Act 2025 treats the intensive-support benefit as de minimis State aid, capped across the group at EUR 300,000 over the three years ending on the day the claim is made. Lower limits apply in agriculture and fisheries. HMRC, ERIS for Northern Ireland SMEs
- What is capped is the difference, not the whole claim. The capped figure is the benefit above what the company would have received under the merged scheme. Expenditure that cannot go through intensive support because of the limit may still go through the merged credit. HMRC, ERIS for Northern Ireland SMEs
- There is an opt-out, and it is not available to everyone. A company whose business involves no trade in goods and no relevant activities in relation to electricity may opt out, notified with the claim. Opting out removes the cap and reapplies the restrictions on overseas contracted-out work and externally provided workers. HMRC, ERIS for Northern Ireland SMEs
- So the decision splits by what the company makes. A software company in Belfast can usually opt out and then has an overseas-contracting question instead. A hardware company usually cannot, and has a cap its competitor in Manchester does not. Either way it is a first-year decision about where the office sits and how development is contracted.
A page that described only the state-wide position would be silently wrong for every company registered in Northern Ireland. That is why this section exists, and it is the reason the page is organised by nation rather than by scheme.
Where British and Northern Irish seed companies get stuck.
| Problem | What it looks like | What we work on |
|---|---|---|
| A relief lost to a diary entry | A first-time claimant files late, or waits for an adviser to have capacity, and the notification window closes on a period whose research was perfectly good. | Putting the notification date in the operating calendar in month one, alongside the company's own filing dates, so it is not discovered at the year end. |
| A budget that quietly changes scheme | The first commercial hire, or a marketing push, drops research below 30% of total expenditure. The relief does not disappear, but its shape and its tax treatment change, and the cash forecast was built on the old one. | Modelling the ratio alongside the hiring plan, so a hire is a decision taken with its funding consequence visible rather than after it. |
| A grant assumed into the plan | A runway built on winning a sector-agnostic grant that is not currently offered, or on a programme whose entry condition is an invitation the company cannot issue to itself. | Rebuilding the first year around the instruments that are actually open, and being plain about which part of the plan depends on something nobody can promise. |
| One allowance spent once | The seed investment scheme allows a company at most GBP 250,000 in total, with gross assets no higher than GBP 350,000 at the time of investment, fewer than 25 employees, and an age limit of under three years. Spending it early at a low valuation cannot be undone, and waiting is not free either. HMRC, venture capital schemes | Sequencing the round against those clocks, and against what the company has to prove next. The relief itself is the investor's tax position and their own advisers price it. |
Sources: HMRC, merged scheme and ERIS · HMRC, CIRD183000 · HMRC, venture capital schemes
Hours, language, tax and data.
- Hours
- India is 4.5 hours ahead of the United Kingdom in summer and 5.5 hours ahead in winter. A 09:00 London start is early afternoon in Hyderabad, so the British morning and the Indian afternoon overlap comfortably — a wider shared window than any other market on this site.
- Language
- English throughout, with no caveat to make. This is the one market here where the working language needs no explanation.
- VAT
- The United Kingdom is outside the EU VAT area, so the EU reverse charge does not apply; it reaches a comparable result by its own domestic rule, under which a business customer accounts for the VAT on services bought from abroad. We do not advise on tax and we quote no rate here. Your accountant confirms the treatment.
- Data
- The United Kingdom is outside the EU and the EEA and has its own data protection regime rather than sitting inside the European one. We act as a data processor under a written agreement, and founders' work in Founder OS is stored in the EU. Your lawyer confirms what the transfer position requires.
- Invoices
- In GBP or EUR, from our Indian company.
- Presence
- None. No office, no local company, no staff in the country. We would rather say that than let it be assumed.
Nations, deadlines and the things we do not do.
Is "British" the same as "United Kingdom"?
No, and the distinction matters on this page. The United Kingdom is four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. "Great Britain" is three of them and leaves out Northern Ireland. We name the nation whenever a rule belongs to one nation rather than to the state, because at least one of the rules here does.
Does this page cover Ireland?
No. The Republic of Ireland is a separate sovereign country, with its own agencies and its own rules, and it is not one of the markets we work in today. If that changes it gets a page of its own.
Can you write our R&D claim or our grant application?
No. We work on the commercial case underneath — the buyer, the pricing, the plan the spending is for. We do not prepare or submit claims or applications, and decisions about them belong to the authorities and the funders. We make no promises about any of them.
Do you advise on the tax treatment?
No. We are not tax advisers and we are not registered to give tax advice in the United Kingdom or anywhere else. We flag the notification deadline and the expenditure ratio because they change commercial sequencing; your accountant prices them and files.
Why does the Northern Ireland section stop where it does?
Because that is where the primary sources stop. The cap, its legal instrument and the opt-out are in the tax authority's published guidance, so we state them. The wider arrangements that produce them are a political subject on which the firm has no view and this page should not imply one.
Do you have an office in the United Kingdom?
No. We work with founders there remotely from Hyderabad, in English, and we would rather say that than imply a local presence we do not have.
Figures on this page were last checked on .
Start with the date, then the ratio.
A 45-minute call with Dineshwara, scheduled in London time.