Critical Path

The chain

[Phase 0]  Owner-of-record decision (Week 0)
              ↓
[Phase 1]  Trade-mark filings authorised (Week 4)
              ↓
[Phase 1]  NDA template approved (Week 4)
              ↓
[Phase 2]  Commercial outreach at scale (Week 5+)
              ↓
[Phase 2]  ICURe Discovery findings (Week 16)
              ↓
[Phase 3]  Commercialisation route decision (Month 9)
              ↓
[Phase 4]  Spin-out / licence / open-core instantiation (Month 12)

Why each link matters

1. Owner-of-record decision

Until Portsmouth Tech Transfer confirms who owns RAIDT and RAIT, you cannot file trade marks (wrong owner = expensive reassignment), cannot license (no clear party to grant rights), and cannot decide spin-out vs licence-back. This is the single most important Phase 0 decision.

2. Trade-mark filings authorised

Filing TMs costs ~£640 UK total. Until filed, your brand is unprotected. Until registered, you can't use ®. Until approved by Tech Transfer, you can't file at all. Block: do not progress to wide commercial outreach without TM filings in flight.

3. NDA template approved

Big-4 firms and regulated-sector partners will not have substantive conversations without an NDA. Portsmouth Tech Transfer must approve a standard template you can use without per-deal renegotiation. Block: cannot pitch licensing terms without an NDA in place.

4. Commercial outreach at scale

Once 1–3 are in place, you can run outreach in volume. This is the engine of Phase 2.

5. ICURe Discovery findings

The customer-discovery phase tells you which of the four candidate routes (audit-firm licence, regulated-sector SaaS, vendor integration, public-sector procurement standard) is most fundable. Block: making the route decision without these findings is guessing.

6. Commercialisation route decision

Choose primary route. This decision shapes the rest of the programme. Block: cannot file EU/US trade marks under the right owner, cannot apply to spin-out or licence-out programmes, cannot raise capital, until the route is chosen.

7. Vehicle instantiation

Whether spin-out (incorporated company), licence (executed agreement), or open-core (governance + brand-licence structure), the vehicle must be instantiated before revenue can flow. This is Phase 4 entry.

Watch-outs

Parallel tracks (not on critical path but compound over time)

These can run independently and don't block the main chain:

• Standards engagement (Stream F) — slow burn; rewards visibility 12–24 months out
• Paper publications (Stream B) — keep submitting and revising; not gated on commercial decisions
• Sector playbook expansion (Stream B) — pick 2 verticals; deepen those rather than expanding breadth

Decision authorities

Re-read this every Monday

The critical path is the document you should re-read at the start of each week. If any link is at risk this week, escalate before Wednesday.