RDP Associates UK

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RDP Associates UK

RDP Associates stands for Research & Development Professionals.

RDP is an international business, with extensive experience in providing financial and technical expertise to companies claiming R&D tax incentives.

30/10/2026

UK R&D Tax Credit Statistics 2026 Summary and Stats

HMRC’s latest R&D Tax Credit statistics reveal £8.2 billion of tax relief claimed on £51 billion of qualifying R&D expenditure. But behind the headline numbers, the 2026 data show a significant shift in the UK R&D tax relief landscape.

HM Revenue & Customs has published its latest R&D Tax Credits Statistics for September 2026, covering claims relating to the 2024–25 financial year.

The statistics provide the first full picture of the UK’s R&D tax relief system following the introduction of the Merged R&D Expenditure Credit (Merged RDEC) and Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (ERIS) for accounting periods beginning on or after 1st April 2024.

For businesses claiming R&D tax relief and companies considering whether they could make a claim there are several important trends to understand.

UK R&D Tax Credits: The key statistics for 2026

According to HMRC, companies claimed an estimated:
- £8.2 billion in R&D tax relief during 2024–25.
- £51.0 billion of qualifying R&D expenditure.
- 40,325 R&D tax relief claims.
- The average claim value, which was 27% higher than the previous year.
- £5.9 billion of relief through RDEC and Merged RDEC.
- £2.3 billion through the SME and ERIS schemes.
- Total R&D tax relief increased by 5%, while qualifying R&D expenditure increased by 7% compared with the previous year.

At the same time, the number of claims fell by approximately 17%.

That apparent contradiction fewer claims but more tax relief is one of the most interesting features of the latest R&D Tax Credit statistics.

The bottom line is “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. As the statistics below will illustrate, the SMEs under the new merged scheme have seen a dramatic decrease in support under the R&D Tax Credit relief programme compared the dramatic increase in funding provided to the larger companies applying for R&D Tax Credits.

Read our full blog here - https://lnkd.in/enCEbPfa

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23/10/2026

💡 Think R&D is only for scientists in lab coats? Think again.

Research & Development can happen in many industries, from manufacturing and engineering to software development and food production.

If your business is working to overcome a scientific or technological uncertainty, you may be undertaking activities worth exploring from an R&D perspective.

Examples can include:
🔹 Developing new products or processes
🔹 Improving existing technology
🔹 Overcoming technical challenges
🔹 Testing innovative solutions where the outcome isn't readily known

The key is understanding what qualifies and documenting the work appropriately.

At RDP Associates Ltd we help businesses understand their R&D activities and explore the support available to them.

Could your business be doing more R&D than you realise?

📩 Get in touch to start the conversation.

06/10/2026

💡 Think R&D tax credits are only for large companies? Think again.

Innovation happens in businesses of all sizes.

A growing company developing new software, improving manufacturing processes, engineering new products, or solving complex technical problems may have qualifying R&D activities.

The important question isn't:

❌ “Are we a big technology company?”

It's:

✅ “Have we undertaken work to resolve a technological or scientific uncertainty?”

Understanding the rules can help businesses identify opportunities they may otherwise overlook.

📩 If your business invests in innovation, now could be a good time to review your R&D activities.

02/10/2026

Accountants: Are R&D claims becoming harder to manage?

With HMRC scrutiny increasing and the rules around R&D tax relief becoming more complex, many accountancy firms are choosing to work with specialist R&D providers.

We support accountants by taking care of the specialist R&D work while you remain the trusted adviser to your client.

✅ Technical project assessment
✅ Eligible cost identification
✅ Claim preparation
✅ HMRC-compliant documentation
✅ Specialist support when queries arise

If R&D isn't something you want to handle entirely in-house, let's have a conversation.

Looking for reliable R&D support for your clients? Drop me a message.

28/09/2026

You could be doing R&D without realising it.

When people hear “R&D”, they often think of scientists in laboratories or groundbreaking inventions.

But R&D can happen in much more everyday business activities.

If your business has had to:
- Develop or significantly improve a product
- Overcome technical challenges
- Test different approaches to solve a problem
- Develop new software or systems
- Improve manufacturing processes
- Experiment because the outcome wasn't readily available or obvious
…there may be qualifying R&D activity within your projects.

The key question isn't simply “Did we invent something?”

It's “Did we face a genuine technological or scientific uncertainty, and did we undertake work to resolve it?”

If you're unsure, it's worth investigating.

💬 Have you ever looked at your projects through an R&D lens?

23/09/2026

R&D Tax Claim Support

You’re doing the R&D. We help you claim for it.

Many businesses are carrying out innovative work without realising that some of their projects may qualify for R&D tax relief.

You don’t need to be a dedicated R&D company.

You might be:

Developing a new product
Improving an existing product or process
Overcoming a technical challenge
Testing different approaches
Developing software or technology
Trying to achieve something that wasn’t straightforward to solve

Our role is to understand the work your team has actually carried out and help translate the technical detail into a clear, well-supported R&D tax claim.

No unnecessary jargon. No one-size-fits-all approach. Just a claim based on the R&D your business has genuinely undertaken.

If you’re not sure whether your projects qualify, it’s worth having a conversation.

📩 Get in touch to discuss your R&D activity.

16/09/2026

Turning ideas into something real

Great innovation doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from curiosity, testing, learning from what doesn’t work, and constantly looking for a better solution

Our R&D work is focused on turning new ideas into practical results, developing, testing and refining solutions that can make a real difference

Every experiment teaches us something. Every challenge creates an opportunity to improve

www.rdpassociates.co.uk

Keep exploring. Keep improving. Keep innovating

14/09/2026

R&D costs can be hiding in plain sight.

Developer time.
Engineer salaries.
Testing.
Prototyping.
Software and materials.

If they're connected to qualifying R&D activity, they may be relevant to your claim.

Start with the project. Then identify the costs.

www.rdpassociates.co.uk

11/09/2026

R&D Tax Relief: Start with the Technological Uncertainty, not the expenditure.

A technically complex project isn't automatically R&D.

The more useful question is:

What Technological Uncertainty existed at the outset that a competent professional could not readily resolve using publicly available knowledge or existing capability?

For example:

• Could the required performance be achieved within the technical constraints?

• Could an existing architecture be adapted without unacceptable degradation?

• Could a new process achieve the required tolerances consistently?

• Could the technical limitations of an existing approach be overcome?

The project becomes interesting from an R&D perspective when your team has to undertake systematic investigation or experimentation to resolve that uncertainty.

The technical narrative should therefore explain:

Baseline → Uncertainty → Investigation → Advancement → Outcome

That's considerably stronger than simply saying:

“We developed a new product.”

09/09/2026

R&D vs Google

If the answer is already on Google, it probably isn't R&D.

R&D begins where existing knowledge stops being enough.

The interesting questions are:

Can we do it differently?
Can we make it better?
Can we make it cheaper?
Can we make it scalable?
Can we make it reliable?

That's where uncertainty and opportunity begins.

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www.rdpassociates.co.uk

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