Notes · Log begins 07 Jun 2026 · Updated 05 Aug 2026
Notes
A dated log of what the lab is, what it is building, and what it does not yet have. Written to be read by someone deciding whether to trust us with a question.
Incorporated 07.06.2026BelfastPre-launch
The log
Volunos Labs Ltd was incorporated on 7 June 2026 and is registered in Northern Ireland under company number NI741243, with a registered office at City East, 72 Newtownards Road, Belfast, BT4 1GW. Its registered activities are software development (SIC 62012) and other research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering (SIC 72190). The second of those is the one that describes what the lab is for.
There is no client list on this site, because there is not yet a client list. There are no case studies, no testimonials, no logos, and no numbers about outcomes we have delivered, for the same reason. We would rather a first client arrived knowing exactly what they were getting than borrow credibility we have not earned.
We do not hold ISO 27001, SOC 2 or Cyber Essentials certification, and we will not represent otherwise, on this site or in a tender response. What we do instead is described in our privacy notice, in plain terms, so that a security questionnaire can be answered honestly rather than aspirationally.
Internal tooling for experiment records. The premise is simple: an experiment record written at the moment work happens is worth more than any amount of reconstruction afterwards, both scientifically and for anyone later assembling an R&D relief claim. The tool captures hypothesis, method, parameters, result and date with as little friction as we can manage, because a heavy system produces no record at all.
It is being used on our own entries first. We are not selling it, and it may never be a product; it exists because we need it.
Two internal lines of enquiry are active alongside the tooling: surrogate models and the point at which their error changes a decision (entry 01), and edge-side signal filtering as a substitute for instrument cost (entry 02). Both are unfunded and internal. Neither is published, and we will not describe either as a result until there is something we would be willing to defend.
A study that concludes an approach does not work is not a failed engagement. It is often the most valuable thing a research budget buys, because it removes a path before the path becomes a programme. We price and report negative findings exactly as we do positive ones, and any proposal we send will say so explicitly.
The corollary is that we will not take work where the answer is required to come out a particular way. If a study exists to justify a decision already made, it is not research and we are the wrong supplier.
If you have a question rather than a specification, that is the right thing to send. A paragraph describing what you are trying to find out, what you have already tried, and what would change if you knew the answer is enough to start. There is no form on this site; write to research@volunos.uk and we will reply within two working days, including to tell you when a question is outside what we can usefully help with.
Standing positions
These do not change with the log and are worth stating once.
Evidence over assertion
Anything we tell you about what works should be traceable to something we measured, or attributed to someone else who measured it. Where we are extrapolating from experience rather than evidence, we will label it as such. Where we do not know, we will say we do not know.
Scope honesty
We will decline work that is outside what we can do well, and we will say who would be better placed where we can. The list of things we are not is on the working with us page and is meant seriously.
Illustrative material is labelled
Any interface, diagram or figure on this site that depicts a system rather than reporting a measurement is labelled as illustrative. There are no screenshots of client systems anywhere on this site, and there will not be unless a client asks us to publish one and agrees the wording.
Confidentiality by default
Material received during an engagement is confidential whether or not a non-disclosure agreement is in place, is used only for that engagement, and is returned or securely deleted at the end of it on request. Where a question can be answered with anonymised or synthetic data, we will propose that first.
The record outlives the engagement
We keep a contemporaneous technical record of research work because it is good practice, because it makes findings reproducible, and because an R&D relief claim eventually has to rest on something written down at the time. We produce and maintain that record. We are not tax advisers and the claim itself is a matter for yours.
Colophon
Mark: two 45° strokes to a bottom-centre node, the right-hand stroke carrying two units past the vertex — a needle that has overshot its datum and not yet settled — with a horizontal reference tick across the opening. Grid lines and diagonals only.
Set in Newsreader, Inter and IBM Plex Mono. Hand-written HTML and CSS; no framework, no tracking, no analytics cookies.