Funding
Understand the funding routes around your innovation plans.
IRDG helps members make an informed first pass across Irish grants, EU programmes and the R&D Corporation Tax Credit — then prepare for the right agency or professional conversation.
Start with the project
Which of these sounds most like your situation?
Four starting points. Pick the one nearest your project — none of them is an eligibility decision, and the official source always controls.
We have done, or are doing, R&D and want to understand the tax position
Who it is forCompanies with qualifying scientific or technological work
Organise the project background, find the current Revenue guidance and prepare the questions for your adviser. The eligibility call belongs to a suitably qualified tax adviser.
We have a defined project and need development funding or a research partner
Who it is forCompanies leading a non-routine development project
Examine company-led R&D funding, an Irish research partnership or an all-island collaboration built around a defined project. Some supports require an application before work begins.
The project genuinely needs international partners
Who it is forCompanies with a credible consortium and delivery capacity
Explore international collaboration, challenge-led calls and high-risk innovation or scale-up routes. Call fit, partners and preparation time all matter from the start.
We are not sure where this fits
Who it is forMembers at any stage
Bring IRDG a high-level description of the outcome, the stage, the partners and the timing. We can help map the landscape and identify the conversation worth having first.
Current and ongoing routes
A small, dated selection worth checking.
Curated as a starting point, not a complete funding database.
- Open through scheduled 2026 rounds
Innovation Partnership Programme
For a company with a defined R&D challenge that would benefit from a structured partnership with an Irish research team.
- company
- research partner
- agency client
Source checked 24 Aug 2026 · listing expires 28 Oct 2026
- Ongoing statutory incentive
R&D Corporation Tax Credit
A tax credit for qualifying scientific or technological R&D expenditure. It is not a grant, and qualification depends on the activities, expenditure and evidence.
- company
- SME
- large company
Revenue Tax and Duty Manual, Part 29-02-03
Source checked 24 Aug 2026
- Available throughout the year
Innovation Voucher
A practical first route for an SME with a defined innovation question that needs input from an approved public knowledge provider.
- SME
- Irish company
Source checked 24 Aug 2026
Curated by IRDG as a starting point, not a complete funding database. Inclusion is not a recommendation or an eligibility decision, and the official source always controls. Collection checked 24 Aug 2026; maintained by Bernadette McGahon with Julia Le Maitre as deputy.
Prepare before the call
A useful first conversation starts with a clear project outline.
You do not need a finished application. You do need enough context for somebody to understand the work, its timing and the decision you need to make.
Keep the first enquiry high-level. Do not send tax records, personal data about other people, or confidential technical or commercial material.
- The business or technical outcome you are pursuing.
- Why the project is needed now — and what is new, difficult or uncertain.
- What has already started and what remains planned.
- The main work packages, decisions and expected outputs.
- The proposed team, research providers and international partners.
- Your organisation size and current agency relationship.
- An initial budget, major cost categories and cash-flow implications.
- Other public support received or being considered.
- The commercial or operational value if the project succeeds.
- Evidence already available: plans, tests, decisions, time or cost records.
- Any official deadline and the source page where you found it.
- The three questions you need an agency or adviser to answer.
How IRDG helps
IRDG helps you reach the right route, prepared.
Good navigation is not the same as writing the application or the claim. IRDG helps members reach the responsible agency or adviser with a clearer project and better questions.
Where the routes get discussed
Where the funding conversation happens each year.
Guidance on a page only goes so far. Twice a year the funding landscape comes into one room, and once a year the people who write and administer the R&D Tax Credit sit down with the companies claiming it.
National R&D Tax Policy Forum
The only forum in Ireland that puts Revenue, the Department of Finance and the companies actually making claims around one table. Administration, interpretation and what the scheme does and does not reach in practice — discussed with the people who set and apply the rules.
Innovation funding events — April and November
Twice a year IRDG brings the funding and support landscape into a single room: national and EU routes, the agencies that run them and the companies that have used them. Hundreds of companies attend. Free for members.
Clinics and briefings
Learn with people who do this work.
Dates are published on the events platform.
R&D Tax Credit clinics, grant briefings and EU sessions run through the year. Current dates and availability are on events.irdg.ie.
In practice
Members who used the funding guidance.
R&D Tax Credit clinics, grant navigation and expert sessions, seen from the member side.
APC & VLE Therapeutics
From startup ambition to a broader development platform.
CommScope
From complexity to confident action.
Ei Electronics
Stepping outside the bubble to bring external learning in.
Not sure where it fits?
Bring us the project, not the scheme name.
Tell us the outcome you are pursuing, the stage the work is at, who else is involved and any deadline you are working to. We will help map the routes worth examining and point you at the right agency or adviser conversation.