The marketplace for public-sector innovation
Procurement that turns hard problems into scalable solutions.
CommonSource brings public bodies together around shared challenges, connects them with credible innovators and creates a clearer route from early market engagement to contract and scale.
Built for public bodies, innovators, accelerators and framework operators.
Which best describes you?
I'm a buyer
Buy better, together.
For public bodies, housing providers and public-sector procurement teams. Understand your challenge, learn from peers and explore opportunities to collaborate.
I'm an innovator
Get discovered and win work.
Get matched to real, aggregated demand and demonstrate why your solution is credible.
I'm a framework operator
Originate demand and build pipeline.
Spot emerging needs early, aggregate buyers into multi-buyer opportunities and check supplier coverage against them.
For Buyers
Better buying starts with shared intelligence.
Understand your challenges, discover organisations facing similar needs, and learn from the approaches they have taken. Identify opportunities to share research, test solutions together and combine demand, so you can go to market with clearer requirements, stronger evidence and greater purchasing power.
Learn from other buyers
Discover relevant peers, approaches and shared lessons before starting from scratch.
Make better buying decisions
Define your needs and evaluate your options with stronger evidence.
Unlock collective buying power
Find opportunities to collaborate and pursue better prices, terms and overall value together.
Stay in control of your buying decisions. You do not have to make them alone.
Why CommonSource
Public-sector innovation often breaks before procurement begins.
Fragmented demand
The same unmet need appears in dozens of organisations, but each one carries it alone and too small to act on.
Hidden innovation
Capable suppliers never see the problem, and buyers never see the suppliers who have already solved something similar.
Evidence does not travel
A pilot proves something in one place, then the evidence stays there and the next buyer starts again.
Disconnected routes to market
Early market engagement, validation and established procurement routes rarely connect into one pathway.
How it works
From hard problem to scalable solution
- Stage 01
Share the challenge
A public body describes an unmet need in plain language, with scope, constraints and timing.
- Stage 02
Pool the demand
Similar needs are clustered across organisations. Every cluster is confirmed by a human before it progresses.
- Stage 03
Scout and match
Credible innovators are surfaced with reasons, confidence levels and the unknowns still to test.
- Stage 04
Prove what works
Validation and test environments generate evidence buyers can reuse and reference.
- Stage 05
Procure and scale
Qualified opportunities progress into an established route to market, subject to authority review.
Find the right path for your organisation
Make better buying decisions, together.
Use challenge intelligence to learn from peers, explore alternatives and identify opportunities to combine demand.
Connect the full pathway around innovation.
Give programmes, accelerators, universities and testbeds one connected pathway from challenge capture to supplier engagement, validation and deployment.
Turn emerging demand into framework opportunities.
Spot needs earlier, aggregate buyers, qualify commercial potential and hand off stronger opportunities into established routes to market.
Two journeys, one shared pathway
Describe the challenge and the outcome you need.
See which other organisations share it and how demand pools.
Review curated innovators with reasons, evidence and unknowns.
Identify potential routes and the next actions required.
Platform
A shared workspace for turning demand into action.
Procure by CommonSource holds challenges, demand clusters, supplier evidence, validation and potential routes in one place, so every organisation involved sees the same picture.
- Cluster detail with participating organisations and shared scope
- Supplier evidence with reasons, confidence and unknowns
- Next actions, owners and activity history
- Potential framework routes, subject to authority review
Healthy and resilient public buildings
Demand cluster · draft · evidence review required
Common need spanning heat, ventilation and energy. Human confirmation required before any cluster progresses.
6
Public bodies
18
Affected assets
4
Solution categories
3
Potential framework routes
Participating organisations
- Northgate City Council
- Riverside NHS Trust
- Eastvale County Council
- Harbour Housing
- Moorland Fire & Rescue
- Westbrook University
Surfaced innovators — human confirmation required
- Thermaflow SystemsConfidence: medium
Retrofit heat controls deployed across three comparable estates.
Unknown: performance in listed buildings.
- Airsense LabsConfidence: high
Ventilation and CO₂ monitoring with published pilot data.
Unknown: integration with legacy BMS.
- Gridwise EnergyConfidence: low
Energy optimisation for mixed public estates.
Unknown: evidence at multi-site scale.
Principles
A clearer pathway, with human judgement built in.
Fair engagement
Opportunities are visible to all eligible suppliers, with the same information and the same timelines.
Human confirmation
AI proposes clusters and matches with reasons, confidence and unknowns. People decide what progresses.
Auditability
Decisions, participants and rationale are recorded to support an audit-ready process.
Appropriate routes
We support preliminary market engagement and identify potential routes. Contracts are awarded through established procurement.
AI-generated clusters and matches always require human confirmation before they progress.
See how a single challenge becomes a scalable opportunity.
Walk through the demo as a public body or an innovator, or talk to us about your programme.