NICTA now a Registered Research Agency

NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research institute, is now authorised as a Registered Research Agency (RRA).

RRAs are organisations approved by the Industry Research and Development Board that are capable of carrying out contracted Australian R&D in one or more classes of activity, on behalf of eligible companies or through collaborative arrangements for a group of companies.

“One of the fundamental goals of NICTA, when it was created, was to grow the Australian ICT industry,” said Dr David Skellern, CEO of NICTA.

“NICTA does this by working in close collaboration with industry and other research institutions to solve problems and make breakthroughs in ICT which can underpin the development of globally competitive products, processes and services.”

Skellern said gaining registration as an RRA recognised NICTA’s ICT research expertise, the fruits of which had led to the creation of four spin-out companies, nine commercial licensing deals and hundreds of collaborative agreements with third-party companies.

Registration as an RRA means that companies that contract NICTA for R&D can apply for the R&D Tax Concession Scheme — provided the work is in the classes of R&D activities for which the RRA is registered.

The incentive enables eligible companies to claim up to 175% of R&D expenditure, in certain circumstances, as a tax deduction against assessable income.