The commercialisation workflow. Tell us where it's wrong.
Before we assess AI and digital tools for research commercialisation, the workflow has to be right. Below is a working map of how research becomes value, drawn from practice, not theory. Mark what is missing, where work stalls, and what your team already uses. Your corrections shape a practical, vendor-neutral map of the sector's real workflow and the tools inside it.
The workflow, seven stages
Open a stage, say whether it's right, tell us what you actually use there. Two minutes per stage, do as many or as few as you like, then press send at the bottom.
01Opportunity captureDisclosures, conversations and scouting surface potential opportunities from the research base.
Where it jams: how much never gets disclosed at all, and what would surface it?
Is this stage right?02Triage and prioritisationDeciding which opportunities get time and money, and which wait.
Where it jams: is triage evidence-led, or does the loudest academic win?
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?03Routing and resourcingMatching each opportunity to a route, a budget and a person accountable for moving it.
Where it jams: opportunities that pass triage and then sit unowned for months.
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?04Customer and partner discoveryStructured contact with the people who would pay: customers, licensees, partners, users.
Where it jams: discovery done as a form-filling exercise after the decision, not before it.
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?05Route to valueThe evidence points at a route, and the routes genuinely differ. This is the branch point.
- Licence or industry partnership
- New venture
- Further validation or programme support
- Stop, pause, or return for more evidence
Where it jams: does your process treat spinout as the default and everything else as failure?
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?06Deal or investment readinessPreparing the chosen route: the licence package, the venture proposition, the partner case.
Where it jams: readiness work that repeats for every deal because nothing is systematised.
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?07First external commitmentA licence, a PoC contract, a collaboration agreement, a translational award, a first customer, or an investment. The first outside party putting something real on the table.
Where it jams: how long the gap runs between "ready" and the first commitment, and what fills it.
Is this stage right? Your correction What do you use here?The button opens an email in your own mail app with your answers filled in, addressed to the practice. Nothing is stored on this page, nothing is sent until you press send in your mail app. Or skip the form and just email brian@theinnovationcommons.com.
Three ways to contribute. Choose one.
Book a workflow walkthrough
Walk us through how one recent opportunity actually moved through your office, start to wherever it is now. We take notes, you get the comparison.
Book a walkthroughPut a tool or initiative on the map
Vendor pitch in your inbox? Internal pilot, home-grown tool, spreadsheet or workflow already in use? Send a link or a short note. Each one gets the same vendor-neutral first-pass assessment: usefulness, evidence, integration, governance, adoption.
Nominate a toolCorrect the workflow above
Open the stages, mark what's right and wrong, tell us what you actually use, press send. That's the survey; there is no other one.
Back to the stagesContact: Brian McCaul, brian@theinnovationcommons.com. First synthesis shared with contributors in autumn 2026.