Fund-Finders for Innovation and Business Growth

From a bustling office in Castle Donington, Matt Symonds of TBAT Innovation describes why the wily innovator continues to beat a path to their door.

It seems an age since the crash of late 2008, the demise of many Government-funded enterprise support organisations, and the collective corporate belt-tightening. Although austerity measures remain in place, there is a distinct wave of confidence across some industrial sectors, not least in life sciences, healthcare, diagnostics and medical technology. Last year, TBAT Innovation experienced a 30% rise in our workload for life sciences clients; that’s not just good for us but great for the companies who now have access to the funding they need. So what might we expect in 2016? Does the Government still intend to reward you for your research and development efforts, and what impact might that have?

What’s available?

Identifying the right kind of funding scheme as well as the correct amount for your research and development can be quite complex. It is also extremely time-consuming. At TBAT, we are alerted to new publicly-funded schemes on a regular basis, typically through Innovate UK and Horizon 2020. Recent changes to the nature of support from Innovate UK, with an emphasis on loan finance, makes taking advice even more important. Overlooked by many organisations in the UK are R&D Tax Credits. If your company employs up to 500 staff and you make a profit, for every £1 you spend on research and development activity, you can reduce your tax bill by 26p. If you make a loss, a credit of 33.3p in the £1 is payable. Although the above values have changed over time, a company can go back up to 3 years. Where too much tax has been paid, HMRC will refund this.

Fund-Finding

The TBAT Innovation team of 16 senior consultants and support staff continues to grow with demand. Our experience covers a number of technologies and industry sectors including health, genetics, sensors, photonics, electronics, advanced materials, aerospace and transport. In the last 12 months the team has assisted clients in accessing over £20m in grant funding through UK and EU grant sources. Success rates over grant funding competitions has constantly been around 75% for the last 3 years. In addition, TBAT has assisted clients in accessing over £13m in R&D Tax Credits benefits through HMRC; our success rate for claims is 100%. We also have over 10 years’ experience of positioning, reviewing and structuring private investment deals.

It worked for us

Snowden Healthcare, specialists in drug-free pain management, asked us to review all their research and development activity with a view to submitting an R&D Tax Credits claim into HMRC. The TBAT team quickly identified the qualifying R&D projects and associated spend, translating this into both a report for HMRC and a Tax Credits calculation. The application was returned to the company for submission. All monies recovered from HMRC were reinvested, and by assigning the whole task to TBAT, Snowden Healthcare could concentrate on running the business.

Talk to us

If your plans for 2016 and beyond require financing, consider signing-up for one of the TBAT Innovation Funding Clinics. These free advisory sessions will identify where those funds might come from, and how to maximise what’s available. Go to www.tbat.co.uk to find out more.