Supporting R&D activities explained
How supporting activities relate to Core R&D and satisfy direct relationship and dominant purpose requirements.
1. Overview
Supporting R&D activities are activities undertaken to support one or more Core R&D activities.
They do not need to involve experimentation themselves. However, they must be directly related to a Core R&D activity.
Supporting activities may occur:
- Before the Core experimental work
- During the experimentation
- After the experimentation
They cannot exist independently. If there is no eligible Core R&D activity, the Supporting activity cannot qualify.
In some cases, Supporting activities must also satisfy the “dominant purpose” test, meaning they must be undertaken primarily for the purpose of supporting Core R&D.
2. Why This Matters for R&D Compliance
Supporting activities allow you to include time and expenditure that is necessary to conduct Core R&D but does not itself involve resolving technical uncertainty.
However, they are frequently misclassified.
To qualify, a Supporting activity must:
- Be directly related to a specific Core R&D activity
- Be necessary to enable, facilitate, or conclude the experimentation
- In some cases, be undertaken for the dominant purpose of supporting Core R&D
If the related Core activity is not eligible, the Supporting activity also becomes ineligible.
Correct classification ensures your claim reflects the true structure of your R&D work.
3. How It Works in Synnch
In Synnch, Supporting activities are created within a project and linked to a specific Core activity.
When defining a Supporting activity, you should:
- Clearly identify which Core activity it relates to
- Describe how it supports the experimentation
- Avoid presenting it as standalone technical uncertainty
There may be multiple Supporting activities linked to a single Core activity, provided each satisfies the eligibility requirements.
Examples of Supporting activities may include:
- Setting up test environments or testbeds
- Fabricating prototypes or test samples
- Preparing materials used in experimentation
- Coding or configuration work using established knowledge that enables testing
- Collecting or organising data required for experimentation
Each Supporting activity should clearly demonstrate its connection to a Core activity.
4. Practical Example
A company is experimenting with a new machine learning model to improve predictive accuracy.
Core activity: Designing and testing new model architectures to resolve performance uncertainty.
Supporting activity: Preparing structured datasets to enable controlled experimentation.
The data preparation does not involve experimentation itself, but it is necessary to conduct the Core experimental work. This may qualify as a Supporting R&D activity.
5. Common Mistakes
- Treating routine production or delivery work as Supporting R&D
- Failing to link the activity to a specific Core activity
- Claiming broad operational costs without demonstrating direct relation
- Ignoring the dominant purpose requirement where applicable