We do this through:
- Our online Training Academy
- An R&D Helpline and Claim Support service
- An active members community on WhatsApp
- Our R&D Certification programme.
Joining as a member gives you access to the broadest range of all our services. You can also access some of our training and support services directly, without membership.
What are the benefits of our training & support services?
Our training and support will allow you to:
- learn more about R&D to improve the service you offer to clients,
- get or stay up to date with the new rules and legislation for R&D claims to stay compliant,
- effectively handle enquiries from HMRC under their new aggressive approach.
You will also be able to get involved in our collective efforts to improve industry standards and bring positive change to R&D tax relief.
Our Experience
Richard Edwards
Our founder, Richard, has been working in R&D tax relief for over 15 years.
His first company, co-founded in 2008, was an R&D consultancy that grew to around 50 people and revenue of £4m. As the person responsible for growing and training the consultancy team, this taught Richard how important it was that their people were aligned, competent and confident – not least to minimise compliance checks from HMRC.
He also co-founded an R&D software company in 2018, before moving on to launch The R&D Community in 2021 to provide training, support and a sense of community to R&D advisors.
Kevin Bailey
Kevin is our R&D Support Director. Coming from a scientific research background, his career in R&D consultancy started in 2011. In addition to assisting companies in making hundreds of claims, Kevin also has extensive experience in dealing with HMRC compliance checks.
Kevin has joined The R&D Community from a Big4 accountancy firm and is excited to now be engaging directly with a wider group of R&D service providers. He’s committed to raising the standards within the R&D consultancy industry, whilst working with advisors to ensure claims meet the additional requirements that entails.
Karen Evans
Karen is an R&D Tax Relief Specialist on our team. She is a Chartered Accountant who has focussed on providing R&D tax relief advice since 2015, and has prepared many claims for a variety of qualifying businesses.
Karen joined the R&D Community first as a member and then more recently as part of the team. She has a shared vision of a fair and functional R&D consultancy market, in which competent, knowledgeable, and ethical R&D advisers thrive.
Sam Watkins
Our Partnerships and Community Manager, Sam, has worked in account management for a number of years and in R&D since 2019. Her aim is to ensure that you are aware of all of the benefits of membership and know how to make the most of them.
Having first joined as a member of the community and having completed all the courses she is well placed to help and advise you on the benefits of being part of a supportive network striving for high standards in R&D.
Our services
Online training & assessment
We produce new training content regularly, focused on the practical needs of our members. You can find all of our current courses in our Course Catalogue. A selection of courses are available to buy individually, and the full catalogue is available to members
Each module is composed of bite-sized videos and short, multiple-choice assessments, and is designed to be as engaging and digestible as possible.
We are continuously building more training and have already developed a large library of high-quality training courses that are useful, insightful, and practical.
If you want to be kept up to date when we launch new courses, you can sign up for our newsletter.
Alongside the courses, our training academy includes dozens of recorded webinars, a Knowledge Bank, and lots of other downloadable resources to support your learning.
R&D Certification
We are now proud to offer the industry’s first professional R&D certification.
The training programme includes courses, required reading and webinar sessions on six core topics in R&D tax relief. The exam is robust and challenging, and delivered by a remote proctoring service to ensure its integrity.
There are two cohorts of certification each year, and you can join the waiting list or register for the next one.
R&D Helpline
If you have an R&D question relating to a claim or a client you can email our R&D Helpline. This gives you fast access to the information and expertise you need to provide a great service for your clients and its cost is included in your monthly subscription. This service is only available to members.
Claim Support
Should you ever need us to carry out specific tasks as part of your team, our Claim Support service can be used to:
- Speak to your clients and give you written feedback about their eligibility
- Review or draft documents for HMRC
- Prepare clients for an enquiry call with HMRC
- Carry out other tasks relating to your client’s claim.
Basically, if you need something R&D-related done, we should be able to do it through Claim Support. The aim is to support your team with particularly complex or challenging tasks, or to bolster your capability when you need additional pairs of hands.
This service is available to all – members get priority access and a reduced hourly rate.
Please note that we do not take over responsibility for the claim and you retain the client relationship. Our aim is always to enable and support you to do as much as possible for yourself.
Monthly Webinars
Each month we run a Training Webinar for members covering a particular topic, like tribunals and updates to the way HMRC interprets the guidance.
These webinars give you an opportunity to strengthen your understanding and ask questions about what you’ve learned. Plus, you’ll be able to discuss ideas and challenges with other R&D advisors with similar issues.
We also run a Spotlight Webinar each month where we invite a guest to talk about their experience in R&D tax relief, and answer questions from members. Previous guests have offered a view into the inner workings of HMRC’s R&D teams, the future possibilities of AI tools for R&D claim preparation, and insights gleaned from a successful outing at the First-Tier Tribunal against HMRC.
Keep an eye on our monthly newsletter to find out about future guests and training topics.
Members WhatsApp Community
We use this to give updates on HMRC news, webinars and new training in the academy, and discuss all things R&D. It’s the ideal place to ask questions, share leads for projects outside your expertise, and find out what other R&D professionals think.
The community has a number of different threads for key themes in R&D, which allows you to opt in or out of conversations to suit your own interests and availability.
Pricing
The R&D Community has a flexible, monthly subscription model. You can change your subscription whenever you want to, so it’s easy to support your team as you grow. Check the latest pricing and choose a level to suit your team.
You can also access some training courses and our claim support service without purchasing membership. Courses start at £295+VAT and Claim Support is charged at an hourly rate of £250+VAT.
How to join
When you’re ready to join The R&D Community, it’s easy to sign up.
We’ll ask you to fill in a registration form that tells us a bit more about you and the staff you want to join with you.
Then we’ll take you through to Stripe to set up your payment. If you want to sign up without a company credit or debit card, please get in touch so we can help.
Finally, we’ll reach out to schedule an onboarding call with your whole team so we can show you how to get the best out of our training platform and also answer any questions you may have. This video call is recorded so if any of your team members miss it, they can catch up on everything we covered.
Sign upLooking for more info?
If you’re not yet sure that The R&D Community is right for you, there’s a few more things you can do to learn more about the training and support options.
- Try our Taster Course – Sign up for free access to “An Advisor’s Essential Guide to the Merged R&D Scheme.“
- Watch the free demo of our training platform and everything included in membership.
- Download our prospectus to get a summary of the key information to share with your team.
