R&D in Engineering and manufacturing may be present in the digital design and computer modeling, work to the building and testing prototypes and ongoing analysis, further testing and developing.

Examples of Eligible R&D activities and questions to consider:

• Have you developed a new or changed product or process that has characteristics substantially different from those currently available (i.e. more efficient, robust, flexible, less expensive, etc.)?
• Have you developed any prototypes? If you were to develop subsequent models, would they have new and different characteristics?
• Did you have any failures in product or process development or improvement?
• Have any of your products or processes taken more time to develop than you expected?
• Have you used or combined technologies in new ways?
• Integrating new materials to improve product performance and manufacturing process;
• Streamlining manufacturing process through automation;
• Developing a pilot plant to investigate the concept of a new process to increasing throughput.
• Developing processes for scale-up to full production.

Sectors of Engineering that may qualify:

• Aerospace engineering
• Automotive engineering
• Chemical and Biochemical engineering
• Construction engineering
• Infrastructure engineering
• Civil engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Green engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Marine technology engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Petrochemical engineering
• Plant engineering
• Process engineering
• Software, Telecoms, and network engineering
• Transportation engineering

Expenditures can include wages, third-party contractor cost (contractor performing R&D in EEA), materials, machinery, equipment, and overheads.