Consultation on proposed enhancements to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program
Status: Open
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recognizes the critical role the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program plays in Canada's innovation strategy. The CRA is committed to hearing how we can continuously evolve administration to meet the changing needs of businesses.
Throughout fall 2025, the CRA will collect feedback from SR&ED claimants on its proposed program enhancements to support:
- introducing a pre-claim approval process to give businesses early certainty through an upfront technical approval of eligible R&D projects
- streamlining the claim review process to remove unnecessary steps and reduce information requirements that create undue administrative burden for businesses
Consultation process
The CRA will invite about 20 SR&ED claimants and industry associations from across the country. They will join virtual discussions to help make sure the CRA runs the SR&ED program in a way that results in tangible improvements for businesses.
To make sure that it hears all perspectives, the CRA is encouraging participating organizations to invite any of the following for discussions:
- their chief financial officer
- a lead engineer or scientist involved in the project
- the individual who completed Form T661, Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Expenditures Claim
- any other individual that has been directly involved in the SR&ED program
How your feedback shapes our services
Claimant feedback is important to us and will help shape future improvements to Form T661 and to the administration of the SR&ED program.
What's next
We will aim to share a summary of what we learned on Canada.ca during winter 2026.
Related information
- Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentives
- SR&ED program resources
- Reporting and sharing