How Nexus works
The Nexus cycle from the science and technical side: how a question becomes evidence, a Foundry build, an organized community, a Universe test, a Nexus Reports publication and a decision by competent actors.
- Institution
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
- 01QuestionNational, regional or institutional priority
- 02EvidenceSTEM foundation of the platform
- 03BuildNexus Foundry
- 04OrganizeNexus Ecosystem
- 05TestNexus Universe (independent site)
- 06PublishNexus Reports
- 07DecideCompetent authorities and institutions, through Nexus Rails
- 08RenewCorrections and the next annual agenda
The short answer.
The Nexus cycle, seen from GCRI, is the eight-step path by which a national question becomes evidence, a Foundry build, an organized community, a Universe test, a Nexus Reports publication and a decision by competent actors, with a named owner at each step. GCRI supplies the science, methods, technical office and editing; it decides nothing at the end.
Systemic exposure in Japan and Korea.
Where people and networks concentrate, the exposure through which shocks travel between systems, shown for Japan and Korea as an example geography for this subject.
Eight steps, each with an owner.
- QuestionNational, regional or institutional priorityQuestion: what GCRI contributes
- EvidenceSTEM foundation of the platformEvidence: what GCRI contributes
- BuildNexus FoundryBuild: what GCRI contributes
- OrganizeNexus EcosystemOrganize: what GCRI contributes
- TestNexus Universe (independent site)Test: what GCRI contributes
- PublishNexus ReportsPublish: what GCRI contributes
- DecideCompetent authorities and institutions, through Nexus RailsDecide: what GCRI contributes
- RenewCorrections and the next annual agendaRenew: what GCRI contributes
Systemic risk does not stay inside one assessment.
Risk management standards describe a loop rather than a line. ISO 31000 sets out establishing scope and context, assessment, treatment, monitoring and review, and recording and reporting; the UNDRR terminology frames disaster risk as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity that changes as each of them changes. A cascading or compound risk crosses sectors, so the loop has to be run with several owners rather than one.
The Nexus cycle is that loop made explicit for work that spans water, food, energy, health, infrastructure and finance. Each of its eight steps names who owns it, which keeps a research finding from being mistaken for a decision and a decision from being presented as a finding.
Where the science and technical office sit.
| Step | Risk-management analogue | What GCRI brings |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Scope, context and criteria | Turns a priority into a researchable question with stated criteria |
| Evidence | Risk identification and analysis | Methods from the STEM Commons, labelled data, uncertainty |
| Build | Analysis tooling | Nexus Foundry projects with versioned models and data |
| Test | Exercising and validation | Technical office for controlled tests in Nexus Universe |
| Publish | Recording and reporting | Editing Nexus Reports, with limits stated |
| Renew | Monitoring and review | Corrections, lessons and the next research agenda |
Organizing communities and the decision itself sit with others: the Consortium bodies and the competent authorities.
What GCRI contributes.
| Step | GCRI contribution |
|---|---|
| Question | turns national and institutional priorities into researchable questions |
| Evidence | supplies the methods, data and evidence labels |
| Build | runs Nexus Foundry, where authorized projects build models and analysis |
| Organize | organizes the specialist communities and the national working groups |
| Test | provides the technical office for tests in Nexus Universe |
| Publish | edits Nexus Reports and publishes findings with their limits |
| Decide | hands evidence to competent authorities, which decide under their own rules |
| Renew | records corrections and feeds lessons into the next agenda |
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Nexus cycle | The eight-step loop by which work moves in every Nexus field: question, evidence, build, organize, test, publish, decide and renew, each step with a named owner. |
| Competent authority | The body that a law or regulation designates to exercise a given power or duty, such as a supervisor, a civil protection agency or a ministry; only it can take the decisions the law assigns to it. |
| Evidence label | A tag on an assertion naming the kind of evidence behind it, such as observed, officially reported or modelled. |
| After-action review | A structured discussion after an activity of what was planned, what happened, why, and what to change. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Pages in How Nexus works.
Questions and answers.
Who decides at the end of the cycle?
Around GCRI.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.