How it works
From technical requirement to qualified infrastructure access.
Five steps take you from a description of what you need to a structured, trackable access workflow — with the reasoning visible at every stage.
- 1
Describe what you need
Tell Qapacity what you are building, testing or validating.
Write it the way you would explain it to a colleague. You do not need to know which facility or equipment you need.
You can attach specifications or device information. Requirements are private to your organisation by default.
Illustrative example
“We are developing an NV-diamond magnetometer and need to characterise sensitivity across a controlled temperature range before a November field trial.”
- 2
Understand the requirement
Qapacity structures the capabilities, equipment, conditions and outputs required.
Qapacity suggests the objective, device, materials, processes, measurements, operating conditions, location, deadline and required outputs, and proposes criteria with values and units.
AI suggestions are clearly labelled. Nothing becomes part of your requirement until you review and accept it, and you decide which criteria are mandatory.
Illustrative example
- Mandatory Magnetic sensitivity measurement
- Mandatory Controlled temperature range
- Preferred Complete before field trial
- AI suggestion — review before accepting
- 3
Find suitable infrastructure
Compare facilities against your actual technical criteria.
Matching is not keyword similarity. Facilities with a confirmed mismatch on a hard constraint are set aside, the Infrastructure Capability Graph finds facilities connected to the capabilities you need, and then every criterion is assessed individually.
Candidates are ordered using mandatory-criteria coverage, unresolved criteria, preferences, location, lead time, verification and access state. That ordering is an aid to judgement, not scientific certainty.
Illustrative example
- Potentially suitable
- Requires confirmation
- Confirmed mismatch
- 4
Resolve the unknowns
Request technical confirmation where information is incomplete.
Where a criterion is unknown, send the provider a structured technical confirmation request. You review exactly what information will be shared before it is sent.
Clarifications are attached to the relevant criterion, and the match assessment updates when they are resolved. History is preserved.
Illustrative example
- Unknown becomesConfirmed match
- Clarification requested
- 5
Coordinate access
Move from qualified facility to enquiry, quotation and access workflow.
Access requests, provider responses, quotes and scheduling live in one record. Multi-stage work can be planned as an infrastructure pathway with dependencies and lead-time exposure.
A quote is not an invoice, a booking request is not a confirmed booking, and submitting a request never authorises physical work — the provider retains control of safety, training and sample acceptance.
Illustrative example
- Submitted
- Provider reviewing
- Technically suitable
- Quote received
- Scheduled
- Completed
The bigger picture
Need → Requirement → Capability → Infrastructure → Qualification → Access → Work → Evidence → Intelligence
- 01
Need
What you are trying to build, test, characterise or validate — in your own words.
- 02
Requirement
A structured technical requirement you have reviewed and confirmed.
- 03
Capability
The capabilities, processes, equipment and operating conditions the requirement depends on.
- 04
Infrastructure
Facilities connected to those capabilities through the Infrastructure Capability Graph.
- 05
Qualification
Criterion-by-criterion assessment: matched, unknown, mismatched — with sources.
- 06
Access
Technical confirmation, structured access requests, clarifications and quotes.
- 07
Work
Scheduled work tracked against your project and infrastructure pathway.
- 08
Evidence
Outputs and reports linked back to the requirement they were meant to satisfy.
- 09
Intelligence
What your organisation learns about infrastructure, dependencies and lead times.
Describe what you need
Tell us what you are trying to build, test or validate. You do not need to know which facility or equipment you need.