Posted: 17 / 02 / 2020
As a nation of innovators, what’s fuelling our Innovation acceleration?
Being financial advisors to entrepreneurs, we’ve supported hundreds of businesses in successfully qualifying nearly a billion pounds in Research and Development (R&D) expenditure over the last 10 years.
We’ve also seen a clear upward trend in the average R&D Tax Relief client benefit size increase to over £63,000. The data is spread across every industry and market sector in the country, from clever little solutions to mind-blowing results.
When asking the question, “What’s fuelling our Innovation acceleration?”, we decided to share some insights into what we found…
Innovative companies regularly spend the most on their Human Capital. The strong performance for internal payroll and external subcontractor expenditure shows that innovation is driven by people.
Innovators and change leaders unshakingly maintain their highest earners positions, regardless of their field of expertise. Client feedback shows experience and education as being less relevant than determination and creativity.
No big surprises that over the years, software technologies have shown accelerated growth in R&D expenditure. The blend of expenditure on software technologies being developed for internal efficiency gains is now almost equal to software technologies being developed for national and international markets.
Feedback from our clients also shows that software technologies are being invested in and used in the innovation process, are becoming more focused in specialist settings and applications.
The recent burst of innovation activities in traditional fields such as engineering and construction sectors indicates a strong correlation with the effectiveness of regional grant funding supports being enhanced. Machinery and hardware capital expenditure continues to find innovative methods of stamping Made in Great Britain, deep in the belly of our innovation furnace.
Taking a step back for the broader, more long-term view, macro-economic factors (like the economy and Brexit) show influence, but not causation for our innovation acceleration. Perhaps the data won’t present the first steps of our innovation acceleration in a black swan event or rallying of activity in a single market sector. Perhaps more likely it’s the most curious among us who can quickly harness the broad range of requirements to deliver the synergistic results of innovation activities.
It appears that innovation acceleration elusively intrigues many among us with a snapshot of a turbulent innovation bubble bath, tempting us to unproductively disappear into. When seeking to accelerate your businesses opportunities, consider contacting us and our panel of innovation consultants to support your future activities.