History of SR&ED

The Government of Canada has been stimulating R&D activities for many decades through the Income Tax Act.

The current SR&ED program has been around in its current form since the 1980s and experienced tweaks and changes as the program evolved over the decades. Globally, Canadian SR&ED is well regarded by other countries, some adopting and modeling their R&D incentive programs based on Canada’s SR&ED program. According to ScienceDirect and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research, there are more than 30 countries with R&D incentives to date, with many similar to Canadian SR&ED.

You can read more about the history of the SR&ED program here.