Public tools for founders. Independent advice for funders, universities and programmes across the UK and Ireland. Grounded in almost forty years of practice.
The Funding Commons maps UK deep-tech and spinout funding by technology readiness and entry ticket, and classifies every source by the question that matters: is this money genuinely reachable from where you stand? More than 50 grants, programmes and investors, free to use and kept current.
First built in the early 2010s; a public version has run since 2017.
Open the map →The knowledge exchange community is too often asked to demonstrate its value using data, metrics and tools that were not designed with practitioners and do not capture what actually drives outcomes. Innovation Commons exists to close that gap. The Funding Commons came first; the practice is named after the thing it builds.
The practice was founded by Brian McCaul, drawing on almost forty years inside UK university commercialisation, across seven institutions and principally in senior leadership. He served eleven years as Chief Executive of QUBIS, Queen's University Belfast's commercialisation company, during which Queen's was ranked first in the UK in the Octopus Ventures Entrepreneurial Impact Ranking. He led the North by Northwest ICURe consortium across Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland for almost a decade, and designed the Innovate UK Venture Builder pilot from specification through procurement to programme content.
His national policy roles include Chair of AURIL, membership of the Lambert Inner Core Working Group that developed the Lambert model agreements, and the UK Government's Business Innovation Forum, latterly within DSIT, alongside more than forty board roles from early-stage spinouts to listed companies.
The practice is based in Belfast and works across the UK and the island of Ireland, from national programme design to all-island initiatives. The work is grounded in the public record and published analysis, so anyone can check the judgement before commissioning it.
Programme and procurement design.
Evaluation frameworks and evidence packs.
Commercialisation function reviews.
Advisory and non-executive roles.
Every engagement is led by Brian McCaul. No subcontracting. Each starts with a scoped conversation, followed by a written scope with deliverables and dates.
Innovation Commons is an independent advisory practice, and most engagements are fee-based. In selected venture-building assignments, the practice may agree an equity component instead of, or alongside, fees. Any such arrangement is agreed in writing before work begins, with relevant interests and potential conflicts disclosed and managed transparently. How the practice manages independence and conflicts →
Dated, numbered analysis of how deep-tech research becomes companies: the evidence behind the tools, the patterns behind the deals, and an 11-part playbook on the deep-tech pitch.