The HIE R&D funding scheme supports small, medium and large enterprises undertaking research and development, even if the innovation is new only to your business. The product need not be innovative within a national context. The scheme can provide grant assistance to support:

• Fundamental research - experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct practical application or use in view.
• Industrial research - planned research or critical investigation aimed at the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or services or for bringing about a significant improvement in existing products, processes or services.
• Experimental development - acquiring, combining, shaping and using of existing scientific, technological, business and other relevant knowledge and skills for the purpose of producing plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. The development of commercially usable prototypes and pilot projects is also included where the prototype is necessarily the final commercial product and where it is too expensive to produce for it to be used only for demonstration and validation purposes.

Find out more by contacting you local HIE office.