Abstract:

Innovation and research-development activities play a key role in economic development and growth. Whereas, research-development activities carried out at the company level affects the degree of innovation of the country. In Poland, a successive increase in expenditure on innovation and research-development activities has been observed for years. Companies have the largest share in expenditure on this type of activity. At the same time, an important role in this respect is played by financial instruments, in particular European funds, preferential financing in the form of credits and loans and tax reliefs, which provide real support for companies in implementing innovative activities, including research-development ones. This article reviews selected financial instruments supporting innovation and research-development activities of companies. Public support in the form of tax reliefs, which companies can take advantage of after meeting certain conditions, was also discussed. In the research process, the method of critical analysis of literature, the method of examining documents, observation, qualitative methods and techniques of graphical presentation of research results were used. The conducted research shows that despite the various available support instruments, companies finance research-development activities to the greatest extent with their own funds, with the share of European funds increasing year by year.