https://tech.newstatesman.com/policy/research-and-development-tax-credit

When it comes to research and development spend, the UK is seriously lagging behind. The government has set a target of achieving 2.4 per cent of GDP for R&D investment by 2027, but if it continues at its current rate of growth the UK will not reach this target until 2053, 26 years too late. As my colleague Dom Hallas wrote a few months ago, we can only improve this situation by increasing the amount of R&D work carried out by tech startups.

The UK’s tech sector is growing over one-and-a-half times faster than the rest of the economy, yet tech startups are currently being denied the right to R&D Tax Credit rebates for a range of technologies that are vital to their innovations because of an outdated definition of what constitutes R&D. This is precisely why we have teamed up with The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN) in our Startup Manifesto, to urge the next government to reform the R&D Tax Credit scheme so that it is fit for a modern digital economy.