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R&D Tax Credits for Life Sciences and Healthcare Companies in Ireland

Irish life sciences and healthcare businesses often carry out complex technical work long before a product, device, process or platform is ready for market. If your team is developing new medical technologies, diagnostics, pharmaceutical processes, biotech methods, clinical data systems or healthcare innovations, the work may qualify for Ireland's R&D Tax Credit.

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Sector innovation

Innovation in Ireland's life sciences and healthcare sector

Ireland's life sciences and healthcare sector includes medtech companies, pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses, diagnostics developers, digital health teams, laboratory service providers and healthcare technology companies. Many projects involve scientific or technological uncertainty in product performance, process development, testing, validation, data handling or scale-up.

This can include work across:

  • Medical device and diagnostic development
  • Biotechnology, assay and laboratory method development
  • Pharmaceutical formulation and process improvement
  • Digital health, clinical data and patient-facing systems
  • Manufacturing scale-up and process validation
  • Prototype design, testing and iteration
  • Sterilisation, packaging and materials performance
  • Lab automation, instrumentation and data capture
  • Quality, reliability and safety-related technical work
  • Technical evidence for regulatory or clinical pathways
  • Knowledge Development Box readiness

For Irish R&D Tax Credit purposes, the key question is not whether the life sciences project is commercially valuable or heavily regulated. It is whether competent professionals faced scientific or technological uncertainty and carried out systematic work to resolve it.

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Healthcare & Medical Devices innovation activity that may qualify for R&D Tax Credits

Qualifying R&D

How life sciences and healthcare companies can qualify for R&D Tax Credits

A life sciences or healthcare company may qualify for Ireland's R&D Tax Credit where it seeks a scientific or technological advancement and has to resolve uncertainty that could not be readily solved using existing knowledge or standard practice.

  • Developing new medical devices or diagnostics Device, diagnostic or test development may qualify where the team is resolving uncertainty around performance, accuracy, usability, materials, sensitivity or reliability.
  • Resolving formulation or process uncertainty Pharma, biotech and healthcare projects may qualify where work is needed to improve formulation, stability, yield, repeatability, purity, delivery or process performance.
  • Improving manufacturing or scale-up methods R&D may arise where a business must test and refine new methods to move from prototype or laboratory conditions into a reliable production or clinical environment.
  • Creating digital health or clinical data systems Healthcare software can qualify where the team is resolving technical uncertainty around data quality, interoperability, security, clinical workflows or system performance.
  • Validating performance, safety or reliability Testing and validation may support a claim where it forms part of systematic work to resolve uncertainty, not just routine compliance or standard quality assurance.
  • Building lab automation or testing methods New laboratory methods, automation tools, instrumentation workflows or data capture processes may qualify where they resolve a wider scientific or technological uncertainty.
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A note from Kirsten

For Irish life sciences R&D claims, evidence and clarity matter.

Life sciences and healthcare claims can be complex because commercial development, regulatory work and genuine R&D often sit close together. Our role is to help Irish businesses explain the technical uncertainty, separate qualifying activity from routine work, and connect the scientific or engineering evidence to the claim.

Kirsten Winsryg, Irish Lead, InnoFund at InnoFund

Kirsten Winsryg

Irish Lead, InnoFund

  • 20+ years in corporate accountancy, grant and audit management.
  • Specialist support for Irish R&D Tax Credit claims.
  • Technical, financial and Revenue-side compliance support for innovation funding claims.
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Client experience

Life Sciences & Healthcare Companies Recommend InnoFund

Practical support from a multidisciplinary team that understands both the technical work and the claim.

“Would highly recommend, they know their stuff! They assisted greatly with an R&D claim rejection by HMRC.”

Steven Potts

Finance Director, Sigma Polymers

“Excellent from start to finish, lovely team and a great result. Highly recommended.”

Sam Collins

General Manager, Terra Farmer

Clear boundaries

Not every life sciences or healthcare project qualifies for Ireland's R&D Tax Credit.

Routine clinical delivery, standard quality assurance and normal regulatory administration will usually fall outside the scope of R&D.

Examples of work that may not qualify include:

  • Routine patient care or healthcare service delivery
  • Standard product testing using established methods
  • Regulatory submissions without underlying technical uncertainty
  • Routine manufacturing, batch release or quality control
  • Simple adoption of off-the-shelf equipment or software
  • Minor product changes with no scientific or technological uncertainty
  • Market research, commercial trials or user acceptance testing alone

Many life sciences projects contain both qualifying and non-qualifying activity. A regulated product or healthcare project may still include eligible R&D if part of the work involved resolving genuine uncertainty in science, technology, process, performance or validation.

Eligible expenditure

Eligible R&D costs for Irish life sciences and healthcare businesses

Irish life sciences and healthcare businesses may be able to include a range of qualifying costs where they relate directly to eligible R&D activity, including:

  • Employee costs for scientists, engineers, developers, laboratory staff and technical leads
  • Employer PRSI, pension contributions and other relevant employment costs
  • Subcontracted R&D, subject to the Irish rules and relevant limits
  • Prototype materials, consumables, testing and trial-related technical costs
  • Software, cloud and data infrastructure used directly in qualifying R&D
  • Relevant overheads and apportionments where properly evidenced

The correct treatment of subcontractors, connected parties, prototypes, consumables, trials, staff apportionment and capital expenditure is especially important for life sciences claims. InnoFund reviews the technical and financial position together so the claim is accurate and defensible for the Irish market.

Evidence & scrutiny

Revenue risk areas for Irish life sciences R&D claims

Revenue may ask a company to explain what scientific or technological advancement was sought, what uncertainty existed and what evidence supports the claim. Life sciences claims should be more than a list of product features, regulatory milestones or commercial outcomes.

Common risk areas include:

  • Claims focused on regulatory approval rather than scientific or technological uncertainty
  • Weak explanation of the baseline science, process or technology
  • Poor separation between routine testing and qualifying R&D
  • Insufficient records of trials, iterations, failures or decision points
  • Over-claiming routine quality control, production or clinical activity
  • Unclear treatment of subcontractors, grants, prototypes or consumables
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Questions, answered

Clear, practical answers to the questions businesses ask most often.

Yes. Irish life sciences and healthcare companies can claim where they are seeking a scientific or technological advancement and must resolve uncertainty that competent professionals could not readily solve at the outset.

It can, but not automatically. Medical device, diagnostic and medtech development is more likely to qualify where the team is resolving uncertainty around performance, safety, reliability, usability, materials, data capture or validation.

Yes, where the digital health work goes beyond routine configuration and involves uncertainty around architecture, interoperability, data quality, security, clinical workflows or system performance that requires systematic development and testing.

Yes. A project does not need to succeed. If the company carried out systematic work to resolve genuine scientific or technological uncertainty, failed or abandoned life sciences projects may still support an R&D claim.

Possibly. The treatment of subcontracted R&D depends on the Irish rules, the contractual position and the nature of the work. External laboratory, engineering, development or testing work should be reviewed carefully before it is included.

Revenue may ask for more detail about the advancement, uncertainty, methodology, costs and supporting records. We help Irish life sciences and healthcare businesses organise the technical and financial evidence and respond clearly.

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Your next step

Don't guess. Know whether your life sciences work qualifies.

Have a life sciences or healthcare project you want to discuss? InnoFund Ireland helps separate routine development from genuine R&D so claims are accurate, compliant and properly evidenced for the Irish market.

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Healthcare & Medical Devices innovation activity that may qualify for R&D Tax Credits