From The merged R&D scheme - What you need to know · · GoodmanJonesLLP
“You use the expression 'innovation in the UK' — amongst our international client base we've seen work done outside the United Kingdom for the economic benefit of a UK-based company; I understand those rules might be changing, so what are those changes?”
On , Graeme Blair, Head of Group Finance at INNOSPEC INC, spoke about foreign expenditure rules during The merged R&D scheme - What you need to know on GoodmanJonesLLP.
Graeme Blair, Head of Group Finance at Innospec, has been involved in discussions on UK R&D tax credit reforms and social science research methodology. In a November 2024 discussion, Blair asked about the practical impact of merging the SME and large-company R&D tax credit schemes, noting that historically there was a differential between the two. He inquired about the meaning of "R&D intensive," changes to subcontractor cost claims, and the treatment of overseas costs. He also asked about HMRC's approach to compliance, stating that his organization had not experienced the rejection of valid claims that had been reported in business news. Blair has also presented research on refugee reintegration in northeast Nigeria, describing a practitioner-researcher partnership with Mercy Corps. He stated that a key policy problem was communities' unwillingness to accept people returning from involvement with Boko Haram, citing a 2017 survey in which 90% of respondents felt returnees should be tortured. He discussed an intervention using audio messages from a senior Islamic cleric, which he said increased support for reintegration by 9 to 13 percentage points. He noted that attitudes toward former associates had improved by about 20 percentage points since 2017. Additionally, Blair has presented work on DeclareDesign, a software framework for declaring, diagnosing, and improving research designs through simulation, arguing that it helps researchers select well-powered designs and communicate their quality to readers and reviewers.