{"id":952,"date":"2024-09-16T09:50:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T09:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leyton.majjane.agency\/ie\/insights\/articles\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:50:48","slug":"what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/insights\/articles\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\/","title":{"rendered":"What does R&amp;D mean in a business context?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Research and development (R&amp;D) drives business innovation, pushing the boundaries of what&#8217;s possible to overcome existing challenges and to create new opportunities. In a business context, R&amp;D doesn\u2019t have to refer to scientific work that\u2019s been carried out by people wearing lab coats, it can be any systematic activity that\u2019s led to an advancement of our current knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Viewed like this, it\u2019s easier to understand that R&amp;D is often already part of growth plans, as it\u2019s natural for businesses to invest resources into projects and activities that will either refine existing process, products and services, or create new ones. In fact, businesses in Ireland invested <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revenue.ie\/en\/corporate\/documents\/statistics\/tax-expenditures\/r-and-d-tax-credit-statistics.pdf\">\u20ac4,688m in R&amp;D expenditure in 2022<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-how-do-businesses-benefit-from-r-amp-d\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do businesses benefit from R&amp;D?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without constant improvement, businesses might lose their competitive edge. Ireland\u2019s leading businesses have a constant process of development and improvement, which means they can address and even anticipate their customers\u2019 needs and expectations. This isn\u2019t just good for the business itself, it\u2019s good for the whole economy. Innovations fuel economic growth, they create new markets, expand productive capabilities, and make things more efficient. Certain breakthroughs might also help to tackle big societal challenges like climate change or global pandemics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why the Irish Government offers innovative businesses financial incentives in the form of <a href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/rd-tax-credits\/\">R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits<\/a>, which encourage investment in research and development to help stimulate the economy\u2019s growth. The relief rate is 25% of eligible expenses, rising to 30% for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2024. The potential savings are huge, which is why businesses should review their innovative development projects, to see if they qualify for the benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-which-businesses-are-eligible-for-r-amp-d-corporation-tax-credits\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which businesses are eligible for R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be eligible for R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits, a business must fulfil <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revenue.ie\/en\/tax-professionals\/tdm\/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax\/part-29\/29-02-03.pdf\">Revenue\u2019s specific tax criteria<\/a>, which means that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the applicant must be a company<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the company must pay Irish tax<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the R&amp;D must take place within the EEA or the UK<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the company must not be claiming R&amp;D relief from any other country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The R&amp;D activities themselves also need to fulfil certain conditions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>they must be systematic, investigative, or experimental in nature<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>they must fall within the field of science or technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>they must involve either basic research, applied research, or experimental development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>they must aim to achieve scientific or technological advancement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>they must resolve a scientific or technological uncertainty<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-what-are-examples-of-business-r-amp-d-projects\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are examples of business R&amp;D projects?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Innovative projects by their very nature might include a whole host of different business activities. As long as your activities meet the criteria above, there\u2019s a good likelihood that you can claim R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits. To give you an idea of what might qualify, here are some example R&amp;D projects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Formulating a new cancer drug<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improving the performance capability of machinery<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Developing a new or improved construction process<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Engineering a new sustainable biofuel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating a new or significantly enhanced software solution to process synchronously millions of data<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inventing a medical device<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improvements to battery and energy storage technologies (e.g. efficiency, sustainability, and capacity)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating an artificial intelligence programme to automate complex, repetitive tasks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Development of renewable\/sustainable materials<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Developing new or enhanced cybersecurity protocols for enhanced protection<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Developing a regenerative agriculture process<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improving the hydrodynamics of a boat or aerodynamics of vehicles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Using machine learning to improve or develop models for weather prediction and analysis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Improving the accuracy of facial recognition software<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This list isn\u2019t exhaustive, but it gives an idea of the type of research and development projects that businesses might undertake. As long as the work isn\u2019t routine, and relates to a specific scientific or technological advancement, you may qualify for R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-which-business-sectors-can-claim-r-amp-d-corporation-tax-credits\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which business sectors can claim R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Businesses from any sector can potentially claim R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits, as long as they are undertaking eligible R&amp;D activities that aim to achieve an advancement in science or technology. Revenue groups the sectors that currently claim into the following groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Manufacturing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Information &amp; communication<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wholesale &amp; retail trade<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Professional, scientific &amp; technical activities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial &amp; insurance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Administrative &amp; support services<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All other sectors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll other sectors\u201d is clearly broad and could cover anything from agriculture and architecture to construction and oil and gas. Again, eligibility for R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits just depends on the type of R&amp;D activity undertaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-how-leyton-can-help\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Leyton can help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not sure if your business qualifies for R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits? We can help.<br><br>We have a team of specialist technical consultants who can assess your innovative business projects for R&amp;D relief eligibility. As well as identifying qualifying expenses, they&#8217;ll guide you through the entire process, ensuring that your business is claiming everything you are eligible for while staying fully compliant with Revenue\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/contact-us\/\">Get in touch<\/a>to find out more about how we can help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If you enjoyed this article, you might also like:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/insights\/articles\/qualifying-rd-expenditure-what-can-you-claim\/\">Qualifying R&amp;D expenditure: What can you claim?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/insights\/articles\/irish-rd-tax-credit-statistics\/\">Irish R&amp;D Tax Credit Statistics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research and development (R&amp;D) drives business innovation, pushing the boundaries of what&#8217;s possible to overcome existing challenges and to create new opportunities. In a business context, R&amp;D doesn\u2019t have to refer to scientific work that\u2019s been carried out by people wearing lab coats, it can be any systematic activity that\u2019s led to an advancement of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1031,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"expertise":[171],"class_list":["post-952","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rd-tax-credits-en","expertise-rd-tax-credits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What does R&amp;D mean in a business context? - Leyton Ireland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We define what R&amp;D means in a business context &amp; explain the process of claiming R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits for eligible businesses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/insights\/articles\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What does R&amp;D mean in a business context?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We define what R&amp;D means in a business context &amp; explain the process of claiming R&amp;D Corporation Tax Credits for eligible businesses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/ie\/insights\/articles\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leyton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-20T10:50:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leyton.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/15\/files\/2024\/09\/GettyImages-1200927481_711x455px-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"711\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"455\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/leyton.com\\\/ie\\\/insights\\\/articles\\\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/leyton.com\\\/ie\\\/insights\\\/articles\\\/what-does-rd-mean-in-a-business-context\\\/\",\"name\":\"What does R&amp;D mean in a business context? 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