Engineering teams are often surprised to learn that not everything they build qualifies for SR&ED — and just as often surprised to learn that work they assumed was “just engineering” actually does. The line comes down to whether the work applied known methods to a known problem, or generated new technical knowledge to resolve a genuine unknown.
Routine Engineering
Routine engineering applies established principles, standard practice, and existing knowledge to design, size, or configure a solution. It can require deep expertise and significant effort — but the underlying approach is documented and the outcome is predictable to a competent professional before the work starts.
- Sizing a structural component using published engineering codes and standard calculations
- Configuring known equipment for a new but well-understood application
- Applying a documented process improvement methodology to reduce a known defect rate
- Standard testing and quality control against established specifications
Eligible Experimental Development
Experimental development goes further: it’s undertaken specifically to achieve a technological advancement where the approach, outcome, or feasibility genuinely could not be determined in advance.
- Developing a new design approach because published codes and standard methods don’t address the specific combination of conditions involved
- Engineering a process to operate reliably outside the range where existing equipment or materials are documented to perform
- Systematically testing competing technical approaches because none has a predictable outcome using current knowledge
A Practical Test
Ask: if we handed this problem to another well-qualified engineering team with access to the same textbooks, codes, and vendor documentation, would they have arrived at the same answer without experimentation? If yes, it’s likely routine. If the honest answer is “they’d have had to test it too,” it’s worth an SR&ED review.
Many projects contain both — a core of eligible experimental development surrounded by routine implementation work. A proper claim isolates the eligible portion rather than claiming (or dismissing) the whole project.
