Knowledge bank
Qualifying activities
What counts as R&D, and where the project starts and stops.
6 answers
- How do I know if I'm doing R&D? Essential read You are doing R&D if a project sought an advance in overall knowledge or capability in science or technology by resolving uncertainty a competent professional could not readily resolve.
- How do I work out what was already known in my field? Establish what a competent professional could find or deduce from publicly available knowledge at the start of the project, record the search, and date it.
- What counts as an advance in science or technology? An advance is an increase in what the field as a whole knows or can do — measured against publicly available knowledge, not against what your company could do before.
- What is scientific or technological uncertainty? Essential read Uncertainty exists when a competent professional in the field cannot say whether something is achievable, or how to achieve it, from knowledge that is publicly available or readily deducible.
- What work doesn't qualify as R&D? Routine work, commercial and aesthetic development, excluded fields, and anything done before the uncertainty was identified or after it was resolved.
- Who counts as a competent professional? Essential read Someone knowledgeable in the relevant scientific or technological principles, aware of the state of knowledge in the field as a whole, with real experience and a track record in it.
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