Water Treatment and Filtration Solutions

BC&A Innovation

R&D Spotlight

Water treatment and filtration are essential to public health, industrial processes, and environmental protection. From ensuring clean drinking water to treating wastewater and developing advanced filtration systems for industry, UK businesses in this space face complex engineering and environmental challenges. Many of these challenges qualify for R&D tax relief — a government incentive designed to reward businesses pushing scientific or technological boundaries by overcoming technical uncertainties.

Whether you’re developing new treatment technologies, improving filtration performance, or finding ways to reduce chemical usage and energy consumption, your business could be carrying out qualifying R&D.

Here are some examples of R&D activities that may qualify in water treatment and filtration:

Developing New Filtration Media or Technologies

Researching and testing advanced filtration materials such as membranes, activated carbon, biofilters, or nanomaterials to improve contaminant removal, flow rates, or durability.

Improving Energy Efficiency in Treatment Processes

Engineering new methods or refining existing systems to reduce the energy consumption of water treatment plants, including pumps, aeration systems, and chemical dosing equipment.

Reducing Chemical Usage or Environmental Impact

Developing or optimising processes that reduce reliance on chemicals like chlorine or coagulants, particularly when alternative methods — such as UV treatment or electrocoagulation — require technical development.

Overcoming Complex Water Quality Challenges

Solving problems related to treating difficult water sources, such as high salinity, industrial wastewater, or emerging contaminants like microplastics or pharmaceutical residues.

Advancing Water Reuse and Recycling Systems

Engineering systems that allow wastewater or greywater to be treated to a safe standard for reuse in industrial, agricultural, or domestic applications, particularly when overcoming reliability or safety challenges.

Developing Modular or Mobile Treatment Solutions

Creating portable or modular treatment units that can be deployed in remote locations, disaster response situations, or small communities where large-scale infrastructure is not viable.

Integrating Real-Time Monitoring and Control Systems

Developing sensor networks, data analytics tools, or automated control systems that improve treatment process monitoring, fault detection, and regulatory compliance.

Meeting Evolving UK Water Quality and Environmental Standards

Engineering systems or processes to meet UK water quality regulations, such as those set by the Environment Agency, Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), or Ofwat, particularly when this requires technical validation or certification.

If your business is actively working on water treatment, filtration, or reuse projects that push the limits of current technology, you could be eligible to claim R&D tax relief. This incentive helps UK companies recover a portion of their research and development costs, supporting ongoing innovation in one of the world’s most critical resources.

Our Process

What to expect when working with
BC&A Innovation

1. Discovery Call

Book your FREE 15 minute discovery call today to discuss your R&D activity and we'll guide you on best next steps and estimated claim value.

2. Information gathering

Our technical experts and industry specialists will work with you to uncover all areas of work activity eligible under the R&D scheme, ensuring we have everything we need to support a robust, defensible and maximised claim.

3. Create R&D Tax Claim

Our technical experts will write your claim and supporting documents with a clear assessment of your eligible activity and costs, ensuring compliance with the scheme's governance throughout.

4. Approval & Submission

We'll share, for your approval, the claim draft and supporting documentation. We'll explain in detail how we have arrived at our assessment of your claimable activity, costs and claim value. When you're happy, your claim can be submitted as part of your standard end-of-year processes.

5. Liaising with HMRC

Should HMRC require any further information or have queries regarding your claim, we'll liaise with them to ensure speedy payment without any reduction in claim value.

6. Payment

Once your payment is received, we'll send it across the same working day and advise you on processes that can be put in place to make future claims even more hassle-free. Don't worry about claims going forward, we'll be in regular contact to remind you what is needed and when.

About BC&A Innovation

We've helped hundreds of businesses like yours secure millions in Research & Development tax relief

Our team recognises the importance of R&D in advancing UK businesses, big and small, and we understand the time burden, resources and complexities of claiming tax relief for that R&D. These constraints often leave companies failing to get the tax relief they’re entitled to or underclaiming significantly due to unclear, often confusing guidelines about what constitutes R&D. As experts in R&D tax relief, we’re here to unblur the lines and create robust, defensible and maximised claims on your behalf.

We’re experienced tax professionals, accountants and technical experts with a deep understanding of the R&D tax relief regulations. We’ve worked in many of the industries we now serve and are ideally placed to understand your business’ R&D Activities. As part of HMRC’s panel on R&D, we stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the guidance, to provide our clients with the most accurate and up-to-date advice.

At BC&A Innovation we take the burden of claim generation away from the business so you can do what you do best, while we do what we do best. We pride ourselves on our integrity, professionalism and commitment to our clients.

Not sure if you qualify for R&D tax relief? Book a FREE discovery call today.

Many of the businesses we work with were unsure if they qualified for R&D tax relief at first. A few had even been told by other agencies that they could not claim. Yet, with our help they were able to correctly identify eligible R&D projects and claim back vital funds.

As experts in HMRC’s definitions of Research & Development, we’ll be able to tell you if you should make a claim or not. We’re success fee based, which means it isn’t in our interest or yours to take forward claims that won’t pass HMRC’s stringent checks. If we say it’s worth doing, you can take that to the bank.

Ready for a discovery call? Think of it as a no-obligation chat where we can discuss the work you’ve undertaken and identify tax-saving opportunities. Our expert consultants are keen to speak with you.