Mission and public value
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) exists to help countries understand systemic risk and build the evidence and capability to become more resilient. Its public-good thesis is that evidence becomes useful only when it turns into capacity: tested options, trained teams, durable tools and published findings that the institutions which decide can examine and use. This page states the mission, the public value it aims to create and the limits that keep it honest. Return to About GCRI.
- 01InstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
- 02Service levelR0: information and enquiries
- 03In briefThe short answer
- 04MissionUnderstanding systemic risk, building the evidence and capability for resilience
- 05ThesisFrom a material question to a competent next action
- 06Public valueWhat success would look like, and what it would not
- 07Key termsTerms used on this page
GCRI · Institution · service level R0
The short answer.
GCRI's mission is to help countries understand systemic risk and build the evidence and capability to become more resilient. Its public-good thesis is that evidence becomes useful only when it turns into capacity: tested options, trained teams, durable tools and published findings that the institutions which decide can examine and use.
Mandate to authority.
Fig.How the platform is governed, from its mandate to the authorities who decide. Design, not a record.
Systemic exposure in South Asia.
Where people and networks concentrate, the exposure through which shocks travel between systems, shown for South Asia as an example geography for this subject.
Understanding systemic risk, building the evidence and capability for resilience.
The systems that sustain societies are coupled. A drought becomes a power shortage, a food price shock and a health emergency; a software failure halts ports, payments and hospitals at once. Mandates, data and budgets remain divided by sector and border, so the most consequential risks are often the least examined as a whole. GCRI's scientific mission is to examine them as a whole, with methods that others can reproduce and challenge.
Risk science
Multi-hazard and climate risk, systemic and cascading risk, and foresight on emerging risk. See Institutional research.
Risk technology
The shared Nexus Foundry environment, earth observation, sovereign data and AI, and resilience engineering.
Policy research
Evidence and technical options for public decisions, interoperable methods and bounded technical assistance.
From a material question to a competent next action.
Public value is created only when each link in the chain holds. The programme is designed so that every step leaves a record and can be checked.
- 01
Material question
A country, region or institution names a priority with an accountable owner.
- 02
Evidence and build
Sources, methods and uncertainty are qualified, and models and scenarios are built in a persistent, governed environment.
- 03
Controlled test
Selected work is tested in the annual programme under exercise controls.
- 04
Reviewed publication
Findings, failures and corrections become citable evidence.
- 05
Competent next action
Governments, operators and licensed institutions decide under their own authority, and corrections renew the next cycle.
What success would look like, and what it would not.
- Countries that hold their own models, data and trained teams, with a portability and exit plan.
- Findings that a critic can trace to sources and methods, and challenge without membership or payment.
- Negative results and failed tests published alongside successful ones.
- No ranking of countries, no single risk score and no claim of authority over a national decision.
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 |
|---|---|
| Mission statement | A short statement of an organization's purpose: what it does, for whom and why, against which its activities can be judged. |
| Systemic risk | Risk arising from the interactions and dependencies within and between systems, where a shock can propagate and threaten the functioning of the whole. |
| Resilience | The ability of a system or community exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, adapt to and recover from their effects in a timely way, in UNDRR usage. |
| Public value | The value an organization contributes to society, as judged by citizens and their representatives. |
Standing that is earned, not asserted.
GCRI's ambition is to be an internationally trusted reference institution and operating community for systemic risk and responsible innovation, earned through reproducible methods, independent challenge, useful products and a visible correction record. Its commitments are set out on Public accountability; its partners in the programme state their own missions, such as the mission of The Global Risks Forum (GRF).
Questions and answers.
Is GCRI a think tank, a laboratory or a technology provider?
Why systemic risk rather than single hazards?
Who benefits from GCRI's work?
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.