Guilds and communities of practice
Guilds are proposed communities of practice: groups of people who share a competence, such as geospatial analysis, hydrological modelling or research software, and who keep that competence strong across countries and projects. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) would host them alongside the Academy. A guild becomes active only when its charter is approved. This page sets out what a guild is designed to do, what its charter must contain and how people can contribute. No guild charter is approved yet. Return to GCRI programmes.
- Institution
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
GCRI · Programme portfolioProgramme portfolio, in outline: domain structure with placeholder names and illustrative values, not a record.
The short answer.
Guilds are proposed communities of practice: groups of people who share a competence, such as geospatial analysis, hydrological modelling or research software, and keep it strong across countries and projects. GCRI would host them alongside the Academy; a guild becomes active only when its charter is approved, and none is approved yet.
Scoping to review.
Fig.A programme from scoping to the owner's decision. Design, not a record.
Systemic exposure in Asia.
Where people and networks concentrate, the exposure through which shocks travel between systems, shown for Asia as an example geography for this subject.
What a guild is designed to do.
Shared practice
Keep methods, tools and quality expectations consistent for one competence across countries.
Learning
Pair experienced practitioners with newer ones, linked to the Academy pathways.
Peer challenge
Offer peer review of work products within the guild's competence.
What an approved charter contains.
- 01
Competence boundary
The competence the guild covers, and where it stops.
- 02
Stewards
Named stewards with declared interests and a term.
- 03
Contribution rules
How people join, contribute and leave, with no fee for ordinary participation.
- 04
Quality and conduct
Review expectations, conduct rules and a complaints route.
How guilds relate to working groups.
National Working Groups (NWG) carry out assigned work for a country programme. Guilds would cut across countries and keep a competence healthy. A person can belong to both. See Working groups and Academy and learning.
- Guild membership is not a qualification, licence or employment.
- A guild has no authority over national programmes or their work.
Competences a guild could form around.
Guilds are designed around competences that recur across fields and countries. Examples drawn from the STEM Commons include geospatial systems, hydrology, extreme value theory, research software engineering, scenario design and stress testing, and AI evaluation and assurance. These are illustrations of scope, not guilds that exist.
Method pages for each competence are in the STEM Commons.
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 |
|---|---|
| Community of practice | A group of people who share a concern or a craft and learn to do it better by interacting regularly; the term comes from Lave and Wenger's work on situated learning. |
| Research software engineer | A professional who develops and maintains software used in research. |
| Competence framework | A structured description of the skills and knowledge a role requires, such as ESCO. |
No approved guild yet.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. Practitioners interested in founding or joining a guild can write to experts@therisk.global. Financial professionals have separate communities at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA); see its Specialist risk communities.
Questions and answers.
Can I join a guild now?
Does a guild certify its members?
Do guild members need to belong to a country programme?
Who approves a guild charter?
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.