Viewing your R&D through the RDTI lens

Applying the five tests to your R&D activity will enable you to identify the key information needed in your RDTI application.

To help you answer each test, you may find it useful if you ask yourself the questions outlined below.

What is my scientific or technological uncertainty?

We acknowledge that most businesses that undertake R&D will do so with a degree of confidence they can achieve what they set out to do.

This means it can often require a mental shift to view your R&D in terms of what’s uncertain about it. However, this is important given the RDTI’s goal of incentivising R&D that pushes scientific or technological barriers.

Ask yourself:

• Where does the ‘headache’ or difficulty lie in my R&D project?”
• Where’s the knowledge gap?
• What’s the problem within the scientific or technological field that I’m trying to overcome?

Can I access knowledge about how to solve my problem?

Ask yourself:

• Has someone done this before?
• Does knowledge on how to solve my problem already exist?
• If the knowledge exists, can I access it for free, or pay an affordable amount to acquire it?

Could an expert in the field easily solve my problem?

Ask yourself:

• Is this something a competent professional would already know how to do?
• Could they give me the solution, or easily propose a solution, using existing knowledge?
• Is a process of systematic investigation or experimentation the only way a relevant expert could solve my problem?

What is the systematic approach I’m taking to resolve my problem?

Ask yourself:

• How am I planning to solve my problem?
• What is my R&D plan?
• What technical metrics and success parameters demonstrate success (or failure)?

Am I aiming to create new knowledge, or a new or improved process, service or goods?

Ask yourself:

• Why am I doing this R&D?
• What’s the expected outcome?
• What will my R&D enable the end user to do that they currently can’t do?