Every scheme asks, in its own form, what the technical problem was and what was done about it. This template answers those questions in the order reviewers read them, with a table for the dated work, a boundary section for the routine work that is not claimed, and an evidence index that ties each statement to a record. It follows the structure in the guide to writing a technical narrative that survives review.
Download the project narrative template (DOCX)
What the template is for
One narrative per project, written by the person who led the technical work and edited by finance or an advisor for consistency with the cost schedule. It is the master version: when a scheme's form imposes its own headings or a character limit, write to the form from this document and keep the full version in the file.
| Section | What goes in it | Common mistake it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Name, period, field, technical lead, finance owner, confirmation date | Different names for the same project in different documents |
| 1. The uncertainty | One or two sentences a competent professional would recognise | Describing the product instead of the problem |
| 2. Why existing knowledge did not resolve it | What was searched, consulted or already known | "Nobody had done this before" with nothing searched |
| 3. The work done | Approaches, failures, results, changes of direction, in date order, with document names | A story of success with no dated evidence |
| 4. The outcome | What was resolved, what was not, when the R&D ended | Claiming work after the uncertainty was resolved |
| 5. Boundary | The routine parts of the wider project that are excluded | Claiming the whole project |
| 6. People | Who did the work, their role, the source of their time record | People in the cost schedule who do not appear in the technical record |
| 7. Evidence index | Document, date, location, what it shows | A data dump instead of an indexed response when a reviewer asks |
How to use it
- Start it from the dated project note written when the work began, not from memory at year end.
- Have the technical lead dictate or draft sections 1 to 4; finance adds the people and evidence sections from the time and cost records.
- Use concrete nouns, numbers and dates; remove every marketing adjective.
- Before filing, the technical lead confirms every sentence and the confirmation date is entered in the project table.
- Map the sections onto your scheme's form. The country how-to-claim and documentation pages say what each form asks for.
Related pages
- Writing a technical narrative that survives review
- Contemporaneous documentation: what reviewers actually look for
- Technical Teams Program, module 4: Writing the narrative
- Advisor and Practitioner Program, module 5: Reports and narratives
- All templates
Educational material, not advice. The template contains no tax facts; each scheme's form has its own headings.
Educational content only, not tax advice. See the disclaimer.