Sub-function
External Collaboration
Owns collaboration work end to end inside Research & Development. Runs 3 lines across 19 stations, drains the repeatable share into no shared tower, and holds 6 human gates.
Estate rating
A
75 / 100
Scouting and milestone tracking are agentic. Anything that shares data or publishes results outside the company is cleared by counsel every time.
Agents
8
Lines
3
Units / wk
6,778
Timetable vs actual
16.7h → 14.6h
Cost / unit
$3.65
was $12
Run-rate saving
$2.9M
annualized at this volume
The 8 agents running this sub-function
Grouped by what they are for, not by where they sit. The agent org is process-shaped.
Collaboration Orchestrator
Owns the external collaboration lane end to end. Sequences the other agents, holds the timetable, and decides what surfaces to a human.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Partner Scouting Agent
Executes the external collaboration step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Agreement Coordination Agent
Executes the external collaboration step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Milestone Tracking Agent
Executes the external collaboration step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Data Sharing Agent
Executes the external collaboration step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Publication Review Agent
Executes the external collaboration step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates to Director, External Innovation when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Partner Strategy Agent
Authors positions on external collaboration. Frames the question, models the options, and writes a recommendation a human can ratify or reject.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
External Collaboration Challenger Agent
Adversarial reviewer for external collaboration. Argues the opposite case on every position and flags where the evidence does not carry the claim.
ceiling A2 · escalates to Escalates when a ratified position is still running against a break condition it flagged.
Estate rating breakdown
Seven control dimensions. Judgment readiness runs against autonomy on purpose.
People
What the humans stopped doing, and what they do now.
Redeployed into scenario work and strategy authoring review.
Lines running in this sub-function
Each line is a workflow. Click a line to walk it station by station.
Strategy positions this sub-function holds
An agent that only executes is a robot. These are the calls it made, the argument against each one, and what would prove it wrong.
External Collaboration Operating Position
Supersededv2What operating shape carries twice the current collaboration volume without adding headcount, and what breaks first if we are wrong?
Hold the ceiling at A2 for external collaboration. Scouting and milestone tracking are agentic. Anything that shares data or publishes results outside the company is cleared by counsel every time. Raise it only after two consecutive quarters where the override rate stays under five percent and every override has a written cause.
confidence
85%
The challenge — External Collaboration Challenger Agent
External Collaboration Challenger Agent argues the recommendation leans on 5 quarters of data from a period with no volume shock. The confidence band overlaps the alternative, and the position does not say what it would take to be wrong. Recorded as a dissent, not a block.
Break conditions
- ·Override rate rises above 9 percent for two consecutive months
- ·Cost per collaboration stops falling while volume keeps rising
- ·A control failure in this lane reaches a customer or a regulator
Evidence gaps
- ·No independent test of the control evidence behind the touchless rate
| Alternative considered | Cost | Risk | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold the current position | $319k run rate | Known and priced. Cedes ground if comparators move faster. | live |
| Raise the ceiling one level now | $1789k to build controls | Override rate is 4 percent; raising the ceiling before that settles imports the error into production. | rejected on evidence |
| Move the exception tail to the spine | $986k transition | Loses local context. Rework risk on the cases that are hardest to recover. | under review |
Policy register
The rules the agents above are bound by. Version, owner, approver, and the agents each rule constrains.
| Ref | Rule | Scope | Owner agent | Approved by | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RD9-POL-200 | External Collaboration Decision Envelope Agents in this lane may act without a human when the collaboration sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. Outside it, the unit holds at a gate with a named approver and a running clock. binds 5 agents · US · Canada | envelope | Collaboration Orchestrator | Director, External Innovation | v5.4 | Active |
| RD9-POL-201 | External Collaboration Evidence Standard Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. An action with no evidence record is treated as a control failure, not a fast decision. binds 5 agents · APAC | evidence | Collaboration Orchestrator | Director, External Innovation | v2.3 | Active |
| RD9-POL-202 | External Collaboration Escalation Rule Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. Director, External Innovation owns the response clock. binds 5 agents · US · Canada | escalation | Collaboration Orchestrator | Director, External Innovation | v2.6 | Active |