10018976Investigating Opportunities for an Automated R&D Tax Credit Software Platform in the USA and CanadaClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKR&D incentive schemes are offered by governments globally to reward companies for investing in innovation. In the UK, HMRC incentivises companies for developing new technologies, products, processes, or services through the R&D Tax Credit Scheme, offering tax relief of up to 33% of eligible R&D costs. Generally, if a company spends money on innovation, it can receive either a cash payment and/or a Corporation Tax reduction. In 2020, 32 out of 37 OECD countries offered similar R&D tax incentives to HMRC at government level, and this number reaches 21 in the EU-27 countries. SMEs globally would traditionally appoint a specialist accountant, or boutique service to prepare their annual claim to access such government funds, and typically pay between 15-30% in fees for the service. Globally, these accountancy charges equate to over $200bn p.a. RDvault has demysti?ed the R&D claims process in the UK, we developed the world's ?rst fully integrated and automated R&D tax credits software, empowering businesses to innovatively and swiftly prepare their own R&D tax claim. Our automated claims platform has disrupted the UK R&D claims landscape, by enabling SMEs to prepare their own claims, using a simple SaaS-based fee. Our innovative cloud-based platform, enables a company to extract, collate and prepare all the relevant information necessary from their cloud-accounting software (Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks), to submit their claim digitally to HMRC, without the need for using a traditional and often time-consuming and expensive boutique/accountant. In this project, we shall investigate the feasibility of adapting our UK claims platform for application to the US and Canadian R&D schemes. Our project's vision is to gain a better understanding of the R&D tax landscapes in the US and Canada where there are significant opportunities for RDvault to be an early entrant and disruptor, and where: * There are established R&D incentives schemes in place, * No two R&D tax regimes are exactly alike, with multitudes of legislation/policy to consider at federal and state/provincial level, * Cloud-accounting uptake is increasing significantly, * Few suppliers are offering integrated/automated R&D claims services, * There is a strong landscape of innovation support, R&D clusters, and technology networks to establish collaborations/partnerships. We shall undertake detailed market research on evaluating each countries R&D Tax schemes, visits to meet key stakeholders, visit technology clusters/science parks, attend international Technology/Innovation and Fintech exhibitions, evaluate competitors, and gauge end-user interest in our R&D claims platform.