Rising Up receives the Research Tax Credit (CIR) approval

Rising Up has been granted the Research Tax Credit (Crédit Impôt Recherche, CIR) approval by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space, as an organisation carrying out research and development work on behalf of companies. In practice, when a company entrusts us with R&D work on skills, it can include these expenses in its own Research Tax Credit. The approval is valid for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Beyond the recognition, this approval has a direct consequence for our partners: it opens the way to research projects partly financed by the tax scheme, on issues as strategic as the evolution of skills frameworks, measuring the impact of training or bringing objectivity to recruitment.

A third scientific accreditation in three years

The CIR approval does not stand alone. It completes a path of recognition built since Rising Up was founded in 2017:

• a French deeptech recognised by the European Commission in November 2023
• the Responsible Digital label (NR1) in 2025-2026
• the CIR approval issued by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space for 2025-2027

Three official accreditations in three years, around a single requirement: grounding the evaluation of skills in science rather than intuition. Our work relies on a research foundation built with a consortium of cognitive science researchers (CNRS, ENS-PSL, Université Paris Cité), and our scientific framework for skills modelling is published in open access. This scientific rigour is the common thread of everything we build.

Research Tax Credit approval decision, issued on 17 April 2026 for the years 2025 to 2027.

AI and skills: a structural challenge for organisations

As artificial intelligence deeply transforms jobs, organisations face a concrete challenge: understanding, structuring and developing skills at scale.

The stakes are not marginal. 85% of the factors of professional success depend on behavioural skills (OECD, 2024). Yet degrees, certifications and experience, the traditional frameworks, are today showing their limits when faced with:

• the rapid evolution of jobs, which makes frameworks obsolete faster than they can be updated
• the emergence of hybrid skills, at the frontier between the technical and the behavioural
• the difficulty of truly measuring the impact of training on employability

It is precisely on these issues that Rising Up has structured its research and development division.

Applied research at the heart of the skills of the future

Our work sits at the intersection of cognitive science, data science and artificial intelligence, with a clear ambition: to make skills measurable, comparable and concrete. In particular, we develop:

• AI models for skills extraction, able to structure, from degrees and certifications, information that is today scattered and hard to use
• models predicting skills needs for a given role, to anticipate the evolution of a job rather than endure it
• impact measurement approaches to assess the real effectiveness of training programmes, beyond satisfaction indicators
• decision-support tools to improve the quality and fairness of recruitment

This work relies on advanced R&D activities: building proprietary datasets, training and fine-tuning models, algorithmic optimisation, analysing the impact on employability. It is the same rigour we apply to the evaluation of behavioural skills, based on observation in real situations rather than self-declaration.

How the CIR approval works for your company

The Research Tax Credit (article 244 quater B of the French General Tax Code) lets companies deduct part of their research and development expenses. When this work is outsourced to a provider, that provider must be approved by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space for the expense to remain eligible on the client side.

This is now the case for Rising Up. When we carry out tailored R&D work on your behalf (designing specific frameworks, scientific consulting, co-developing models, documented researcher hours), these expenses can be included in the base of your Research Tax Credit, which grants a tax credit of 30% of eligible expenses, within the limits and conditions set by the scheme.

For your organisation, this translates into three concrete benefits:

• funding part of your innovation projects around AI and skills
• securing the tax treatment of this work, thanks to an officially approved provider
• accelerating your research initiatives without having to arbitrate alone between scientific ambition and budget

Who this approach is for

The approval concerns organisations that want to go beyond simply using a tool and engage in genuine research. Three partner profiles are particularly concerned:

• large groups that are developing their skills frameworks or bringing objectivity to their HR decisions. We already support organisations such as Orange, Google and Adobe on these topics.
• higher education institutions that measure the impact of their teaching programmes or certify the skills of their students under the RNCP and RS frameworks.
• public institutions working on employability and fairness in the labour market.

In every case, the logic is the same: start from a real research question, answer it with scientific methods, and measure the impact achieved.

Frequently asked questions about Rising Up's CIR approval

Which work is eligible for the CIR with Rising Up? Research and development work carried out on a tailored basis on your behalf: designing specific frameworks, scientific consulting, co-developing models, documented researcher hours.

Are platform access or product support concerned? No. The CIR approval covers R&D work carried out on your behalf, not the use of our packaged products or services. Our teams help you precisely define the eligible scope before any commitment.

Which years does the approval cover? The approval is valid for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.

A conviction: technology must serve people

"Putting science at the service of projects that carry meaning and impact, such as better valuing underestimated skills or helping to recruit more fairly, is at the heart of our commitment. In the age of AI, it is essential to build tools that strengthen the readability and fairness of the labour market."

Nawal Abboub, doctor in cognitive science and CSO of Rising Up.

Building tomorrow's skills together

Are you working on the evolution of your skills frameworks, the impact of your training or the integration of AI into your HR or educational processes?

Rising Up supports you in structuring, developing and valuing these projects within a framework eligible for the Research Tax Credit.

Talk to our R&D team