Funding for Innovation and Research and Development

Invest Northern Ireland offers a range of financial support to help businesses innovate, create new products, improve processes and develop new services, whether exploring ideas for the first time or advancing established projects. Options include Innovation Vouchers, offering £10,000 to access specialist knowledge from one of 39 universities, colleges and research organisations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; the Technical Development Incentive, providing SMEs with funding of up to £15,000 towards technical service providers such as test-houses, product development consultants, certification bodies or IP specialists; Project Definition assistance, offering support of up to £100,000 to scope a collaborative R&D project or help apply for external R&D funding such as from Innovate UK, covering activities like prototyping, testing and IP costs; and the Grant for Research & Development, supporting product, process or service innovation, including collaboration with universities and Digital Process Innovation. The page also notes that HMRC R&D tax relief may still be available alongside Invest NI funding, though Grant for R&D is notified state aid and is therefore not eligible for HMRC SME tax credits (though large company RDEC scheme may still apply).

Funding is only available to Invest Northern Ireland clients; for the R&D Grant, applicants must also have discussed their proposed project with an Invest NI representative and been issued an application form with an individual reference number before applying.