A simpler way to start R&D

If your product development has reached a technical question that requires new knowledge to answer, you may not need to commit immediately to a large development program.

Successful Endeavours is now a registered Research Service Provider (RSP) under the Australian Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive (R&DTI) program. This gives our clients access to recognised engineering R&D capability in electronics, sensors, digital hardware, distributed systems and software engineering.

For eligible R&D conducted through an RSP, the usual minimum annual R&D expenditure threshold does not apply. That can make it easier for a business to start with the smallest useful investigation, generate evidence, and then decide whether the next stage of investment is justified.

In practical terms:

technical question requiring new knowledge for an answer → investigation → evidence → better decision → next level of commitment

That is often a better commercialisation pathway than committing to the whole product before the important uncertainties have been retired.

What is a register Research Service Provider

Successful Endeavours has been approved as a registered Research Service Provider (RSP) under the Australian Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive (R&DTI) program.

Our registration number is RSP000057 and our registered fields of research cover:

• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware
• Distributed Computing and Systems Software
• Software Engineering

These are the fields in which much of our existing product-development work already sits, particularly where a project involves genuine technical uncertainty, experimentation and generation of new knowledge.

What is a Research Service Provider?

A Research Service Provider is an organisation registered with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to provide scientific or technical R&D services to other companies. The Australian Government provides clear guidance on how to get help from a Research Service Provider.

To become registered, an RSP must demonstrate capability and capacity to provide R&D services in nominated fields of research. The Australian Government maintains a register of approved RSPs.

For Successful Endeavours, becoming an RSP formalises something we have been doing for many years: helping clients work through technically uncertain product-development problems using structured investigation, experimentation, engineering and evidence.

What does this mean for our clients?

The main benefit is access to a recognised Australian R&D provider with the engineering capability, development facilities and processes needed to investigate difficult technical problems.

For an SME, building all of that capability internally may not make commercial sense.

A client may need specialist electronics engineering, embedded software, communications, sensing, test equipment, prototype manufacture or experimental capability for one stage of a project rather than as a permanent internal function.

An RSP allows that capability to be brought into the project when it is needed.

Government guidance specifically identifies RSPs as useful for companies that do not have all of the personnel or facilities required to conduct the R&D themselves.

R&D expenditure below the normal threshold

Under the current R&D Tax Incentive rules, companies generally need at least $20,000 of eligible R&D expenditure in an income year before they can claim the R&D tax offset.

That minimum expenditure threshold does not apply to eligible expenditure on R&D activities conducted by a registered Research Service Provider.

This can be particularly useful for smaller businesses or for an early investigation where the sensible first step is deliberately limited.

We often recommend starting with the smallest useful activity that can answer an important technical question rather than committing immediately to a large development program.

RSP status means the R&D Tax Incentive expenditure threshold does not necessarily force a client to make the first experiment larger than it needs to be.

RSP status does not make every development activity R&D

This distinction is important.

Product development can contain many different activities. Some may involve genuine experimental R&D, while others are normal engineering, requirements development, productisation, certification, manufacturing engineering or commercial activity.

Using an RSP does not automatically make a project, or every activity within a project, eligible for the R&D Tax Incentive. Companies remain responsible for assessing whether their activities and expenditure satisfy the R&DTI requirements. The Australian Government provides guidance on how to Check if you are eligible for the R&DTI.

Our role is therefore not to label ordinary engineering as research.

It is to help clients structure technically uncertain work properly, run the investigation systematically and generate useful evidence so that the next commercial decision is based on what has actually been learned.

Why this matters for commercialisation

Good commercialisation rarely starts with certainty.

Early R&D is valuable because it turns uncertainty into evidence. Each investigation should answer a defined technical question, reduce risk and improve the quality of the next commercial decision.

Rather than committing immediately to the full product-development program, a better approach is often to build confidence progressively:

technical uncertainty → targeted investigation → evidence → reduced risk → justified next commitment

The aim is not simply to spend money developing a product. It is to learn enough at each stage to make the next decision with better information.

That can mean:

• testing whether a sensing technique is viable;
• determining whether a communications architecture will work in the intended environment;
• establishing achievable battery life or power consumption;
• evaluating an algorithm against real data;
• developing experimental hardware or software;
• characterising performance before committing to a production architecture.

The most useful next step is often much smaller than the whole product-development program.

This is especially important for SMEs, where capital and engineering capacity are finite and every stage needs to earn the right to proceed to the next one.

More than an R&D laboratory

Successful Endeavours works across the path from technical investigation through product development, prototyping, verification and Australian manufacture.

That matters because successful R&D is only useful commercially if the knowledge generated can subsequently be incorporated into a viable product or commercial offering.

Our approach is therefore to conduct R&D with the eventual commercial outcome in view: what needs to be learned now, what evidence will be required next, and how that knowledge can ultimately be translated into a manufacturable product.

Our registered R&D fields

Successful Endeavours is registered to provide contracted R&D services in the following Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification fields:

• 4008 — Electrical Engineering
• 4009 — Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware
• 4606 — Distributed Computing and Systems Software
• 4612 — Software Engineering

Our RSP registration number is RSP000057.

Thinking about an R&D project?

If you have a technical problem where the answer is not yet known, an early investigation can often establish what is feasible before you commit to a full development program.

We can help determine what needs to be investigated, what evidence would be useful and whether the work is within the technical fields covered by our RSP registration.

For advice on whether your company or expenditure is eligible for the R&D Tax Incentive, you should also speak with your accountant or specialist R&DTI adviser. And if you are unsure how to proceed, or do not have an R&DTI adviser, we can make an introduction.

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Product Development and Embedded Software and IoT, focusing on products that are intended to be profitably Made In Australia. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 40 years.

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