Last night, GovGrant hosted a dinner at the House of Commons with a number of MPs, industry experts and our clients to discuss how government should support the SME community. The focus was on the question, ‘If the R&D tax credit system is driving innovation and productivity, why is uptake still low and what should be done to give SMEs better IP protection and understanding?’
Of significant note was, just how open, engaged and responsive the MPs were in the discussion.
We walked away with an overwhelming sense that government want to continue to drive support and do the right thing and if improvements need to be made, they are all ears.
The key takeaways from the evening were:
- Understanding the R&D tax credit scheme needs to be made clear, better promoted and support the innovation lifecycle
- Allow SMEs to compete with large competitors by having the ability to take on the risk of large projects
- Intellectual Property support through better knowledge transfer and funding mechanisms for upstream development
- Insurance or government backed funding for IP litigation needs to be investigated to ensure that SMEs are not ‘steamrolled’ by large companies
We will be following up all that was discussed to keep the momentum and will continue to update our community.
