PRODUCTION PROCESSES · SCALE-UP · PILOT INSTALLATIONS

WBSO process development: when does a production process qualify?

Making an existing product through a new process is often full-fledged R&D work: the bottleneck lies in the process, not in the product. The development of a physical production process can qualify for WBSO when the process is technically new for your company and you have to solve technical bottlenecks yourself. The product you make therefore does not have to be new. The key question is whether you are developing a new technical operating principle, process route or form of process control whose operation is uncertain in advance.

Have your process assessed View the WBSO requirements

BY PETER KLAREN · UPDATED 19 SEPTEMBER 2026 · SOURCE: RVO WBSO GUIDE 2026

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What is a technically new production process?

A process that must achieve higher capacity, tighter tolerance, a new material or lower emissions and for which no proven process route exists can be technically new. RVO assesses this using the same pattern as for product development:

Technical goal

Which process performance do you want to achieve: capacity, tolerance, material, emissions?

Technical bottleneck

Which physical or chemical mechanism prevents this with known process routes?

Your technical approach

Which new process route, control strategy or process control do you develop yourself?

Demonstrating the operating principle

With which test runs and measurements do you demonstrate that the process works?

Extrusion example: a manufacturer wants to extrude a bio-based plastic at higher speed. When throughput is increased, unstable material flow and local degradation occur; known temperature and pressure settings do not solve this. The company therefore develops a new temperature zoning, screw geometry and process control itself and tests them through trial runs.

Read the detailed case in our WBSO case studies.

Process optimisation versus WBSO process development

This is the most important delineation on this page. Optimising within known settings is not R&D. As soon as you have to investigate the process window itself because the outcome is unpredictable, the work can qualify.

Situation	Probably WBSO?	Why
Optimising temperature and speed within known margins	Usually not	Regular optimisation without technical uncertainty.
Developing a new process route because existing routes do not work	Possibly yes	There is technical uncertainty about feasibility.
Installing and commissioning a standard machine	Usually not	Application of existing, proven technology.
Developing a new dosing or control principle yourself	Possibly yes	Own technical development of a new operating principle.
Shortening cycle time with existing settings	Usually not	Engineering and optimisation, no new technical mechanism.
Accelerating a process where new flow or heat behaviour occurs	Possibly yes	A new, still unsolved technical bottleneck arises.
Automating a production line with standard robots	Usually not	Integration of existing technology.
Developing a new gripper, control or positioning method	Possibly yes	Existing technology falls short; own technical operating principle needed.

Rule of thumb: the WBSO bottleneck is not the desired improvement, but the underlying technical mechanism that prevents that improvement from being realised with existing knowledge.

Where do technical bottlenecks lie in process development?

Think of situations in which, for example:

heat transfer is insufficiently controllable;
flow becomes unstable at higher capacity;
pressure build-up leads to process instability;
material behaviour changes during scale-up;
tolerances are not achievable;
reaction time is insufficiently reproducible;
emissions increase under changed process conditions;
a control strategy does not react fast enough.

In the application, always describe the underlying technical mechanism, not only the desired improvement.

Scale-up and WBSO

Scaling up does not automatically qualify; it does when new, unpredictable technical behaviour occurs at larger scale that you must solve. Enlarging a reactor from 10 to 1,000 litres is not R&D in itself. But if heat dissipation, mixing or residence time fundamentally changes as a result and a technically new solution must be developed for it, the development work may possibly qualify.

Similar transitions occur more often:

lab extrusion → industrial extrusion;
batch process → continuous process;
laboratory drying → industrial drying line;
small reactor → production scale;
manual assembly → high-speed automation.

Test runs, test series and process windows

Experimental test runs can qualify as R&D when they are necessary to develop the technically new process solution and demonstrate the operating principle. Routine tests, quality control, production commissioning after the operating principle is known, maintenance and fault repair do not fall under R&D.

The WBSO development project ends as soon as the technical operating principle has been demonstrated. Activities afterwards — validation for production, qualification and scale-up without remaining technical uncertainty — are no longer R&D.

Pilot installations and productive end use

For process development, it is often necessary to test at larger scale. RVO makes an important distinction between two situations:

Situation	WBSO treatment
Experimental test setup used solely to demonstrate the operating principle	Can count as an R&D expenditure
Full-scale (1:1) installation used for production after the R&D project (pilot plant or prototype with productive end use)	Expenditures do not automatically count as WBSO expenditures

Therefore record in advance whether an installation will be used for further production after the development process, or has solely served to demonstrate technical feasibility. For the financial elaboration see WBSO costs and expenditures.

Machine building versus process development

In a new production line, two developments can play a role at the same time:

Product development

You develop a technically new machine, dosing head, reactor or gripper.

Process development

You develop a technically new way in which the material is mixed, formed, heated, dosed or processed.

Both may qualify for WBSO, but the technical bottlenecks, proposed solutions and R&D hours must be clearly separated for each development track. Are you mainly developing the machine itself? Then see WBSO product development.

Costs and expenditures in process development

In addition to R&D wages, direct costs and expenditures can count: test materials, measuring equipment specifically for R&D tests and certain test costs. For pilot installations and larger investments, the potential productive end use is decisive for what does and does not count.

Compare the allowance and actual costs with WBSO calculator and read the full rules at WBSO costs and expenditures.

Examples of WBSO process development

The following situations illustrate where process development can become technically uncertain. They are anonymised example situations, not claims about specific clients.

Bio-based plastic extrusion

At higher throughput the material degrades and unstable flow occurs. The company develops a new temperature zoning, screw geometry and process control.