The SR&ED project is that part of your development activity involved with overcoming (or failing to overcome) a Technological Barrier, using a documented systematic investigation by qualified staff. The result is referred to as a Technological Advancement, which extended the Technology Base of the Company (a combination of knowledge that is in the public domain and any proprietary knowledge the Company may have obtained). The systematic investigation involved a process in which options were researched, and prototypes were developed and tested, with some failures along the way. An iterative cycle occurred of using the knowledge gained from the test results to either modify the prototype or change the option, and to do more testing until the Advancement was achieved (or not). If more than one Barrier was involved, and the barriers were related as part of a system, then the project can be defined as the development of that system.

1. Company Background
   Include founding year, size, mission, industry, customer base, and location.
2. Commercial Background
   Describe the business reason for the development project.
3. Project Background
   Describe the development project.
4. Project Staffing
   For each staff member and subcontractor:
   Provide the position, function, name, list of qualifications (degrees/diplomas/certificates and where they were obtained), and the number of years of IT or project management experience
5. Technological Objectives for the Development Project
   List specific, quantified, technological goals. Do not include commercial objectives.
6. Technology Knowledge Base
   Describe the relevant technology or standard practices that is known, either because it is in the public domain, or because you have developed or acquired some proprietary technology. Identify why it is inadequate for your purposes.
7. Technological Barriers
   These are barriers to the successful achievement of one or more of the Technological Objectives. Define each one, and explain why it is a barrier.
8. Research Plan
   Identify each step in your Research Plan, and when it or was scheduled to occur. This is particularly valuable to understand a project that occurs during more than one fiscal year. (There is no requirement that a project starts or ends around a fiscal year end. However you only describe the work – see next area – which occurred during the current fiscal year.)
9. Experimental Development
   For each Barrier:
   What was the development chronology in terms of a systematic investigation? (Trial and error is not acceptable.) In 'headline' detail only, what research was done? Which alternatives were considered? What were the results for each prototype test? What failed? What was the status at the fiscal year-end? Which of your staff and subcontractors worked on it - and during which months?
10. Technological Advancements
    What were the advancements? Note that failures are advancements - and enhance the credibility of claims of experimentation.
11. Supporting Information
    This is evidence that the activities of the project actually occurred during the specified time period. Supporting information can be informal (e.g. scraps of paper). Types of information are:
    • Results-oriented (which is helpful but not evidence):
      Examples are final source code, and technical and user manuals.
    • Process-oriented (which is the evidence needed):
      Examples are project diaries, design and project planning notes, progress reports, internal and external e-mails, reports and letters, notes on telephone calls to suppliers for technical support, time sheets, and interim versions of source code.
12. Subcontractors
    For each subcontractor (in addition to the information provided in Area 4):
    Name of company; GST or SIN number; Name of people involved; Number of contracts; What SR&ED projects were the contracts for? Date and total amount paid for each contract; Total amount charged to each SR&ED project; What type of work was involved.

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