Investing in innovation

Innovation drives productivity, boosts growth and contributes to communities worldwide. It also sits at the heart of every organization’s sustainability efforts. But innovation needs capital. The EY Quantitative Services teams help businesses access sources of cash through grants, tax credits and fixed asset/cost segregation claims. 

Related topics Tax Tax planning Innovation Long-Term Value Private Business

The team

Frank Buffone

Frank Buffone

EY EMEIA and UK&I Quantitative Services and Innovation Incentive Leader

What EY can do for you

Taking powerful innovation to market – successfully – is no easy feat. Connecting the dots from ideation, funding, research and development (R&D) to commercialization is the priority. EY teams have been serving knowledge-based economies over the last 20 years, and have successfully worked with many innovative companies, research institutions and academia responsible for driving innovation in Europe, Africa and beyond. EY teams bring innovators together, develop smart strategies helping to transform ideas into new products and services, faster than the competition.

Collaboration is the new innovation. EY teams help answer how you can:

  • Find financing for your innovation projects
  • Write a high-quality grant application to obtain European and national funding
  • Manage your innovation project effectively
  • Be confident in compliance with funding and European Union (EU) state aid rules
  • Best protect your intellectual property (IP)
  • Stay ahead of the curve when it comes to funding and innovation
  • Know if your investment location selection works for your projects

  • Help identify and claim R&D tax credits for past and future innovations

    As jurisdictions look to science and technology to prime their economies, many have renewed, expanded or refocused their R&D incentive programs. Benefitting from these regimes requires a deep understanding of the definition of R&D for tax purposes, and how this applies to activities and projects taking place across the business. We help to:

    • Identify eligible projects within the organization – both current and historic (in jurisdictions where retrospective claims are permitted).
    • Align innovation and R&D projects to the relevant incentives.
    • Draft consortium agreements for large-scale R&D and innovation projects.
    • Prepare and file the appropriate claims.

  • Help identify and apply for relevant grant funding

    In contrast to R&D tax credits, grants are usually discretionary and often highly competitive, meaning only the best applications succeed. We help to:
    • Propose and continually scan the market for appropriate innovation grants.
    • Write and submit a compelling, detailed grant application which fully aligns with the fund’s objectives.
    • Respond to requests for further information from the grant body, including supporting through the due diligence process.

  • Comply with ongoing funding milestones

    In complex grant-funded innovation projects, we help manage risk down and compliance up. We can:

    • Review and advise on planned, ongoing and closed projects’ compliance.
    • Develop financial statements compliant with relevant rules and regulations.
    • Certify grant-related expenditures and projects’ cost-calculation methodologies in accordance with applicable legal frameworks.

  • Help identify fixed asset management and cost segregation savings

    When multinational companies hold assets in multiple jurisdictions, their fixed assets registers can quickly run into millions of lines of data.  Acquisitions, disposals, transfers and cost adjustments during the year, combined with ever-changing tax rules, can easily lead to coding errors. To identify cost saving opportunities, our fixed assets teams use bespoke technology, where appropriate, to:
    • Ingest, cleanse and format fixed asset data.
    • Segregate real estate assets according to depreciation classes.
    • Apply appropriate jurisdictional rules.
    • Perform relevant calculations.
    • Prepare the final report.

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Our services include:

  • Broad public funding advisory

    We help in securing funding for innovation projects, from programs available at a regional, national or European level. Throughout the public funding journey, EY professionals:

    • Assess potential impact of project(s) in line with related national or EU policies and global goals 
    • Identify suitable funding programs for your innovation projects
    • Balance and leverage multiple stakeholder input to help develop cohesive proposal drafts
    • Critically challenge the ambition behind the project
    • Complete necessary financial calculations for budget templates and perform plausibility checks
    • Support project management office with administrative and logistical support: consortium management, assist with communication, project progress reporting and monitoring, standard technical and financial reporting

  • Design financing options

    We help design sustainable financing options to raise funding for your innovation project at any stage of its development, from early stage to commercialization. EY professionals:

    • Develop financing models for innovation projects that help optimize use of public and private funding (international and local) at any stage of project maturity (i.e. seed capital, investment grants, venture capital, venture debt, project or corporate finance)
    • Design sound business models to attract equity and debt financing
    • Design and support implementation of funds and de-risk facilities to attract capital for project finance
    • Develop and prioritize bankable project pipeline to secure potential funding
    • Perform financial and legal due diligence on projects seeking finance

  • Funding compliance

    We help manage associated risk down and compliance up of your public funding strategy and projects with EU State Aid and applicable funding rules. EY professionals:

    • Review and advise on planned, ongoing and closed funding projects’ compliance
    • Develop financial statements compliant with EU state aid rules and regulations
    • Support with state aid notification process to the European Commission
    • Draft EU and national funding grant and consortium agreements for large-scale R&D and innovation projects
    • Certify grant-related expenditures and funding projects’ cost calculation methodologies in accordance with applicable legal framework
    • Advise on potential IP treatment in context of publicly funded multi-stakeholder projects, review and develop related IP strategies

  • Incentive location selection

    Location selection decisions are already complex, and the compliance requirements of securing investment incentives are often not considered until too late in the overall decision-making process. A structured site selection process is critical and EY teams support projects from inception through to location decision and implementation. EY professionals:

    • Leverage a robust, agile and visual evaluation and location-ranking process to facilitate decision-making
    • Assist in translating location-specific compliance requirements into the site selection, support with negotiation and ongoing processes
    • Collaborate with and provide access to far-reaching network of government and national investment agency contacts
    • Provide access to EY proprietary analytical tools and databases

  • Foreign direct investments into EMEIA

    We help you access national and regional public incentives available for foreign direct investments into EMEIA, including post-project support and compliance. EY professionals:

    • Analyze investment projects and match to relevant national or regional investment funding schemes
    • Support with developing a leading application and help negotiate with funding authorities
    • Provide technical assistance, including compliance validation of each funding request in accordance with relevant regulations, budget monitoring and expenditure reviews
    • Provide ongoing support post-payment of incentives, including obligatory compliance checks, progress reports and final project evaluation metrics at completion

  • Building innovation playgrounds

    We work with you to establish lasting innovation playgrounds through development of European-level Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). Such playgrounds can help drive governmental institutions to introduce innovation incentives to make the difference in accelerating growth in Europe. EY professionals:

    • Design partnering strategies for KIC applications with the European Institute of Technology (EIT)
    • Support storyline and proposal development
    • Provide process management for ongoing KICs, i.e. preparation of Start-up Grant Agreement and annual business plan
    • Support in effective communications with funding authorities
    • Assist with administrative obligations and reporting

  • Innovation academy

    We help in training your personnel in charge of R&D, innovation, funding sourcing, grant application and grant management. Regardless of your industry, location, organization type, funding interests and knowledge levels, EY courses can be tailored to your needs. EY courses help to:

    • Connect your organization with the front-running innovation and funding networks, communities and enablers, helping you to collaborate with leading class professionals
    • Identify funding opportunities offered for your state-of-the-art technologies and business innovations
    • Become a funding guru responsible for developing financially sustainable R&D and innovation projects, by seizing the right funding opportunities at the right moment
    • Enhance the knowledge levels to form competitive teams, capable of managing the entire innovation chain
A man checking the solar panels

Worldwide R&D Incentives Reference Guide 

The Worldwide R&D Incentives Reference Guide offers taxpayers the information necessary to identify and assist to leverage opportunities to benefit from available incentives, especially relevant if they are contemplating new or expanded investments in R&D, innovation and sustainability.

Find out more

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