Verticals
Six industries we know cold.
Strata focuses where R&D credit work is most often missed and where our team has done it most often. Specialists, not generalists.
Vertical
Audio & Visual / System Integrators
If your team is wiring rooms together with custom programming, you are doing R&D and you probably know it.
What qualifies: Custom integration, control system programming, automated lighting and shading, networked A/V, complex commercial installs.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Programming control systems (Crestron, Lutron, Savant, Q-Sys)
- ✓Engineering custom rack and signal flow layouts
- ✓Integrating disparate hardware protocols
- ✓Prototyping new install methods for novel rooms
- ✓Designing acoustic or networked-audio solutions
Vertical
Security & Access Control
Networked security is engineering. Designing it, hardening it, and integrating it across vendors is qualifying R&D work.
What qualifies: Networked security platforms, access control system design, video analytics, custom alarm logic, IoT integration, cybersecurity hardening.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Designing access control architectures across multiple sites
- ✓Programming logic for badging, visitor management, and intrusion
- ✓Integrating cameras with video analytics platforms
- ✓Resolving cross-vendor hardware compatibility
- ✓Engineering cybersecurity hardening for networked devices
Vertical
Water & Wastewater
Engineering treatment for new contaminants, new regulations, or new throughput is exactly what the credit was designed to reward.
What qualifies: Treatment process design, controls and SCADA systems, equipment customization, regulatory engineering, pilot testing.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Engineering treatment processes for new or changing contaminants
- ✓Designing custom controls and SCADA logic
- ✓Evaluating membrane, filter, or biological treatment performance
- ✓Designing chemical dosing systems for site-specific needs
- ✓Pilot testing process changes before full-scale rollout
Vertical
Marine & Boat Manufacturing
Hulls, helms, and electronics are constantly being refined. Every iteration is documentable, defensible R&D.
What qualifies: Hull design and refinement, custom marine electronics, propulsion and stabilization, materials engineering, in-water performance testing.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Designing or refining hull geometry for performance or efficiency
- ✓Integrating navigation, helm, and entertainment electronics
- ✓Prototyping propulsion or stabilization improvements
- ✓Evaluating new composite materials or marine coatings
- ✓In-water performance testing and design iteration
Vertical
Automation & Robotics
Robotic cells, PLC programming, vision systems, motion control: this is the textbook definition of qualifying R&D.
What qualifies: Custom robotic systems, PLC and motion programming, machine vision, integration projects, end-of-arm tooling, control logic.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Programming robot motion paths for new applications
- ✓Designing end-of-arm tooling and fixtures
- ✓Integrating machine vision and inspection systems
- ✓Developing control logic across PLCs and HMIs
- ✓Prototyping new automation cells and validating throughput
Vertical
SaaS & Software
Engineering wages are the largest single bucket of qualifying expense for most software companies. Most leave them on the table.
What qualifies: Product engineering, platform architecture, new feature development with technical uncertainty, performance optimization, integration and security work.
Common qualifying activities
- ✓Designing system or platform architecture
- ✓Building new features that require evaluating multiple approaches
- ✓Optimizing performance, scale, or reliability
- ✓Integrating third-party APIs with non-trivial behavior
- ✓Building ML and AI features, including evaluation and tuning
- ✓Security and compliance engineering
Not on the list?
If your team builds, integrates, or innovates, you likely qualify.
The verticals above are where we have done the most work. They are not the only places R&D credit work shows up. A 15-minute call tells you for sure.
See if you qualify →Featured Work
Real credits. Real companies.
Innovators across the country have recovered credits they didn't know they had earned.
Supply chain software company. Credits identified across multiple qualifying research activities.
Read the case study (PDF) →
3-year lookback. 15 employees surveyed. $3,720 per qualifying employee per year.
Read the case study (PDF) →
Premium center-console boat manufacturer. Credits recovered for custom hull and electronics R&D.
Read the case study (PDF) →Ready to find out
Find out what your R&D work is worth.
Takes 15 minutes. No cost to find out. No obligation.