Risks cascade across systems
Water, energy, food, health, ecosystems and infrastructure fail together through shared dependencies. Assessments made one sector at a time miss the compound events that do the most damage.
About GCRI Canada GCRI US
Research, development and policy for systemic risk
Risk science, technology and policy for a connected world.
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) is the research, development and policy institution of Nexus Consortiums. Through GCRI Canada, its lead organization, and GCRI US, it builds the science, the technology and the public-interest standards that countries need to understand systemic risk, govern frontier technology and prepare the evidence that finance for resilience depends on.
Institution registerGCRI Canada · GCRI US
- MandateResearch, technology development and policy research for systemic risk and responsible innovation
- OrganizationsGCRI Canada, lead organization and Consortium Secretariat; GCRI US, the United States institution of GCRI
- CoversRisk management, risk technology and intelligence, and the evidence behind risk finance readiness, which GRA leads
- StanceNeutral, strictly not-for-profit, in service of nationally owned programmes
The institutional record · service level R0
01In brief
The short answer.
GCRI is one pillar institution of Nexus Consortiums that works through two organizations: GCRI Canada, the lead organization and Consortium Secretariat in Toronto, and GCRI US, a separate United States institution. Its mandate is research, development and policy on systemic risk, held to one standard of evidence; it does not regulate, certify, license or approve.
- Risk domains
- 12
- In every national risk docket
- Areas of work
- 30
- Across six disciplines
- Foundry systems
- 20
- One shared operating environment
- Planned hubs
- 15
- In six regions, coordination roles
02The challenge
Systemic risk crosses every institutional boundary.
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 by border, so the most consequential risks are the ones least examined as a whole.
Technology outpaces institutions
Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum and autonomous systems create new capability and new exposure faster than institutions can evaluate, govern or absorb them.
Evidence arrives too late for decisions
Ministries, operators and financial institutions often decide without shared evidence, tested options or a clear view of uncertainty. Finance for resilience follows events instead of preparing for them.
03Our mandate
Research, development and policy, held to one standard of evidence.
Inside Nexus Consortiums, GCRI carries the technical role. It turns material national questions into science that can be examined, technology that can be tested and policy options that competent institutions can adopt.
Research
Risk science
Multi-hazard and climate risk science, systemic and cascading risk, strategic foresight on emerging risk, and country evidence published with its methods and uncertainty.
- Country systems models
- Scenario science
- Methods papers
- Country reports
Development
Risk technology and intelligence
The shared Nexus Foundry environment, earth observation and geospatial intelligence, sovereign data and AI, shared computing, and resilience engineering for critical infrastructure and cyber systems.
- Reproducible tools
- Risk intelligence
- Testbeds
- Digital twins
Policy
Policy research and standards
Evidence and technical options for public decisions: risk governance, adaptation, digital and AI governance, interoperable data and methods, and technical assistance to the institutions that decide.
- Policy options
- Technical standards
- Technical assistance
- Evidence briefs
GCRI supplies the technical basis. Policy dialogue and convening are led by GRF, finance readiness by GRA, and every decision stays with the competent authority.
Fig. 01Research, development and policy in one workbench.Illustrative interface; placeholder values, not results.
04Our approach
The Nexus: one system of systems, examined as a whole.
The Nexus approach starts from the dependencies between water, energy, food, health, biodiversity and critical infrastructure. We model how stress in one system travels into the others, where the common points of failure lie and which interventions strengthen several systems at once.
Fig. 02Six systems, each coupled to every other.
Water
Supply, quality and extremes
Drought, flood and contamination, and the dependence of power, irrigation, sanitation and industry on the same basins.
Depends on
Rainfall and groundwater, ecosystems that regulate flow, and energy for pumping and treatment
Cascades into
Power generation and cooling, irrigated food production, sanitation and health, industrial supply
How a cascade unfolds. A drought lowers reservoirs, hydropower and thermal plant cooling fall, and water treatment loses power at the moment demand peaks.
Energy
Generation, grids and fuels
Grid stability, fuel and critical mineral supply, and the transition, with the water, cooling and digital systems that energy depends on.
Depends on
Water for cooling and hydropower, fuels and minerals, digital control systems
Cascades into
Every lifeline: water treatment, hospitals, food cold chains, communications and payments
How a cascade unfolds. A heatwave raises demand while cooling water warms, forcing curtailment that cascades into water, health and digital services.
Food
Production, trade and access
Yield shocks, input and logistics disruption, price transmission and nutrition, from field to cold chain to household.
Depends on
Water, soils and pollinators, fertiliser and fuel, ports and cold chains
Cascades into
Nutrition and health, household finances, social stability and public budgets
How a cascade unfolds. A drought and an export restriction coincide, prices spike, and nutrition and public finances absorb the shock for years.
Health
Health systems and biosecurity
Outbreaks, heat and pollution, and the continuity of hospitals that rely on power, water, supply chains and data.
Depends on
Clean water and sanitation, reliable power, medical supply chains, digital records and a healthy environment
Cascades into
Workforce and productivity, household income, education and public trust
How a cascade unfolds. Extreme heat raises admissions while power cuts disable cooling and records, and pharmaceutical supply chains slow.
Biodiversity
Ecosystems and land
The ecosystem services that regulate water, soils, pollination and disease, and the land-use choices that erode or restore them.
Depends on
Land-use policy, water flows, climate and pollution levels
Cascades into
Water regulation, food yields, disease control, coastal protection and livelihoods
How a cascade unfolds. Upstream deforestation raises flood peaks and sediment, damaging water treatment, hydropower reservoirs and downstream farms.
Critical infrastructure
Lifelines and digital systems
Transport, ports, communications, data centres and payment systems, where single points of failure turn local events into national ones.
Depends on
Power, water, skilled operators, software supply chains and satellite services
Cascades into
Trade and food logistics, health supply chains, emergency coordination and finance
How a cascade unfolds. A port outage halts fuel and food imports, while a regional data-centre failure stops customs, payments and hospital records together.
Thirty transmission channels
Every pair of systems is coupled in both directions. Each row shows how stress in one system reaches the others.
| From · to | Water | Energy | Food | Health | Biodiversity | Infrastructure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Hydropower, thermal cooling | Irrigation, livestock | Drinking water, sanitation | River flows, wetlands | Treatment, ports and navigation | |
| Energy | Pumping, treatment, desalination | Fertiliser, cold chain | Hospital power, cooling | Land use, emissions | Every lifeline | |
| Food | Irrigation demand, runoff | Biofuels, processing demand | Nutrition, food safety | Land conversion, pesticides | Freight, storage, ports | |
| Health | Outbreak response, workforce | Workforce availability | Labour, food safety | Zoonotic pathways | Workforce, surge demand | |
| Biodiversity | Watershed regulation | Reservoir sediment, biomass | Pollination, soils | Disease regulation, medicines | Coastal protection, flood buffering | |
| Infrastructure | Networks, control systems | Grid control, fuel logistics | Logistics, cold chain, markets | Supply chains, records, access | Fragmentation, spills |
Fig. 03The channels through which stress passes between systems. Mechanisms, not measured strengths.
Five commitments of the Nexus method
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01
Model dependencies, not silos
Each analysis states the systems it couples, the mechanism of transmission and the assumptions behind it. A dependency map is never presented as a validated causal model.
-
02
Keep every kind of evidence distinct
Observed, officially reported, estimated, modelled, forecast and scenario results carry their own labels. Missing data is shown as missing, never as zero.
-
03
Test compound and cascading scenarios
We examine how events combine and propagate, how long recovery takes and which constraints bind, rather than scoring hazards one at a time.
-
04
Start from places and national priorities
Questions come from national demand and local knowledge, analysed at the scale where consequences are felt, with rights-holders involved on their own terms.
-
05
Carry analysis through to tested action
Findings move into controlled exercises, portfolio choices and handoffs to the institutions that act, and the results return as corrections for the next cycle.
05How Nexus works
One cycle from a national question to a tested, published answer.
Every programme moves through the same eight steps. GCRI leads the evidence and the build, contributes the technical office to the annual test, and hands every decision to the institutions that hold it.
- QuestionNational programmeA country, region or institution names a priority with an accountable owner.
- EvidenceGCRI · STEM foundationSources, observations, methods and uncertainty establish what is known, and what is not.
- BuildNexus FoundryData products, models and scenarios are built and compared in a persistent, governed environment.
- OrganizeNexus EcosystemInstitutions, leaders and expert teams take part through the NNC, NLC and NWG.
- TestNexus Universe · GRFSelected work is tested in the annual programme: a month to build, a week to test.
- PublishNexus ReportsReviewed findings, failures and corrections become citable, versioned evidence.
- DecideCompetent authoritiesGovernments, operators and licensed institutions decide and act under their own authority.
- RenewNext annual agendaCorrections and lessons reset the priorities of the next cycle.
Process canvas · the cycle as a run graphDesign, not a record
Fig.A computational graph of the Nexus cycle: nodes with their type, metrics and state, connectors for what feeds what, the owners as groups, the year as a run timeline. Design, not a record of a run.
06What we steward
Neutral technical infrastructure for the whole Nexus Ecosystem.
GCRI stewards the shared infrastructure on which national and regional programmes run, so that every country works with the same methods, the same evidence standards and its own data under its own control.
-
01
Nexus Ecosystem
The whole architecture: consortiums, platform, annual programme, shared computing and publications, working as one programme. GCRI keeps its records, registers and technical coherence.
-
02
Nexus Foundry
The operating environment where projects, data, models, maps, analysis and evidence persist all year, in twenty systems with ten command rooms each. GCRI runs its global-to-local deployment under a strict not-for-profit mandate.
-
03
Nexus Universe
The annual operating and proving cycle governed by GRF, with its own website. GCRI provides the technical office: mission scoping, data and method qualification, the Core build and evidence capture. The final stage is a planned stand-down; review, reconciliation and corrections continue afterwards.
-
04
Nexus Network and Nexus Core
A durable federation of retained national and regional sites, and each year a temporary Core of qualified computing, high-speed networks and technical teams. Offered capacity is never counted as allocated capacity.
-
05
Nexus Reports
One governed publication programme: quarterly country editions, an annual flagship and specialist series, with methods, uncertainty, review and correction history. GCRI stewards the evidence and methods behind every edition.
Fig. 04The Nexus Universe year, from preparation to stand-down.Illustrative interface; placeholder values, not results.
The twenty systems of Nexus Foundry, and what each provides, are described on Nexus Foundry.
07The risk landscape
Twelve domains in every national risk docket.
Global risks reach countries through specific systems. Every national programme examines the same twelve domains, so findings can be compared across countries without forcing them into a single score.
| Family | Domains | What we examine |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental | Climate and hazards · Water · Biodiversity and land · Food | Compound hazards, resource stress, ecosystem loss and the limits of adaptation |
| Societal | Health and biosecurity | Outbreaks, health-system continuity, heat and pollution, and unequal exposure |
| Infrastructure | Energy · Lifeline infrastructure · Critical minerals | Single points of failure, restoration constraints and supply concentration |
| Economic | Trade and supply chains · Finance and insurance | Chokepoints, price transmission, protection gaps and fiscal exposure |
| Technological | AI and cyber · Data and compute | Digital dependence, provider concentration, cyber disruption and AI failure modes |
08Frontier technologies
Frontier technologies, assessed for the risk they add and the capability they give.
Every frontier technology changes a country's exposure and its capacity to respond. We assess both sides against real use cases, operating conditions and the skills a country actually has.
Artificial intelligence and agents
Risks we examine
Failure modes, misuse, concentration of models and compute, and automated decisions without accountability
Capabilities we assess
Forecasting, risk intelligence and decision support under human oversight
Quantum technologies
Risks we examine
Future threats to today's encryption and the long transition to quantum-safe systems
Capabilities we assess
Optimization and simulation for networks, materials and logistics
Robotics and autonomous systems
Risks we examine
Safety in shared spaces, cyber-physical attack and accountability for autonomous action
Capabilities we assess
Inspection, response and operations where people should not go
Biotechnology and synthetic biology
Risks we examine
Biosafety, biosecurity and dual-use research
Capabilities we assess
Diagnostics, vaccines and resilient agriculture
Semiconductors and compute
Risks we examine
Supply concentration, export controls and the energy and water demands of data centres
Capabilities we assess
Sovereign computing environments with a portability and exit plan
Space, sensing and geospatial systems
Risks we examine
Dependence on satellite services and signal disruption
Capabilities we assess
Earth observation, monitoring and verification at national scale
Advanced energy and materials
Risks we examine
Critical mineral dependence and the safety of new energy systems
Capabilities we assess
Storage, grid flexibility and resilient construction
Next-generation communications
Risks we examine
Network concentration, interception and cascading outages
Capabilities we assess
Resilient connectivity for warning, response and continuity
A technology's novelty or a vendor's benchmark does not establish its fitness for a national mission. Capabilities still in research are labelled as research.
09The national model
National programmes owned by each country and comparable across borders.
Each country builds its own National Nexus programme with nationally accountable counterparts and domestic resources. GCRI provides the technical backbone, so national work meets a common standard and can be compared and combined across borders.
-
01
Formation
A formation dossier with the local ownership model, host options, first risk questions, safeguards, resources and exit conditions.
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02
National Desk
Coordination, routing, cadence, records and continuity for the country programme.
-
03
National Model
A governed representation of the country's systems, dependencies, evidence and uncertainty, built in Nexus Foundry.
-
04
National Portfolio
Linked views of risks, capabilities, innovation, projects, research and handoffs, without any claim of ownership over national assets.
-
05
Three participation pillars
Institutions in the National Nexus Consortium (NNC), individual leaders in the National Leadership Council (NLC) and experts in the National Working Groups (NWG).
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06
Annual cycle and reports
Missions tested each year in Nexus Universe, and progress published in the quarterly Nexus Country Systems Risk and Resilience Report.
design stress levelWatchElevatedHighSevere
GCRI · institution · fieldDESIGN FIGURE
Fig. 05The six regions where GCRI coordinates its work. Illustrative levels, not findings; hubs are coordination roles, not offices.
Africa
The Africa programme is designed around the systems that cross the continent's borders: transboundary river basins, regional power pools, trade and mineral corridors, food and pastoral systems, and cross-border health. Country programmes set the agenda; regional work compares compatible evidence so each government, operator and community can decide with a clearer view of what it depends on.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| Senegal | Sahel and coastal dependencies, basins, food, water, energy and regional capability development. |
| Kenya | Drought, pastoral systems, geothermal energy, health, ports and regional connectivity. |
| South Africa | Water, energy and mining dependencies, municipal systems, industrial continuity and transition. |
Asia and the Pacific
The Asia and the Pacific programme spans dense manufacturing and logistics networks, large monsoon and glacier-fed basins, and Pacific island states facing compound climate and connectivity risk. The East Asia Nexus Consortium programme, in formation, sits within this region. Work is organised by subregion so that national programmes can compare semiconductor, port, energy and hazard dependencies without merging their data or authority.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| India | Monsoon and heat, river systems, food, health, digital infrastructure, grids and Indian Ocean connections. |
| Singapore | Import dependencies, ports, urban continuity, digital systems and finance. |
| Japan | Seismic and tsunami resilience, manufacturing, robotics, ageing, energy and supply chains. |
Europe and Eurasia
The Europe and Eurasia programme covers highly interconnected power, gas, data and transport systems, alongside the Caucasus and Central Asian corridors that link Europe to Asia. The Eurasia Nexus Consortium programme, in formation, sits within this region. Regional work focuses on cascading infrastructure failure, the energy transition, heat and flood risk, and the digital and financial dependencies that cross jurisdictions.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Four-nation context, coastal and North Sea systems, infrastructure continuity and finance readiness. |
| France | Metropolitan and overseas contexts, Mediterranean systems, grids and European interoperability. |
| Switzerland | Alpine systems, watersheds, methods, standards, international institutional interfaces and finance readiness. |
| Türkiye | Seismic resilience, cities, reconstruction readiness and strategic corridors. |
Latin America and the Caribbean
The Latin America and the Caribbean programme connects the Amazon and Andean water systems, major agricultural export corridors, and Caribbean and Central American states exposed to hurricanes, sea-level rise and seismic risk. Country programmes lead; regional work makes evidence compatible across basins, ports and power systems so that small and large states can test the same questions on their own terms.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| Brazil | Amazon and basin systems, biodiversity, food, energy, land and bioeconomy dependencies. |
Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa programme addresses severely water-stressed systems, the transition of major energy economies, extreme heat, and maritime and overland corridors of international importance. North African states also take part in the Africa programme. Regional work compares desalination, groundwater, power, food-import and heat dependencies while each country keeps control of its data and its decisions.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | Heat, desalination, power, compute, ports, logistics and development readiness. |
| Saudi Arabia | Heat, water, cities, industrial systems, compute and Red Sea dependencies. |
North America
The North America programme covers deeply integrated electricity, energy, transport and manufacturing systems across Canada, the United States and Mexico, together with wildfire, heat, flood, hurricane and Arctic change. The Consortium Secretariat sits with GCRI Canada in Toronto, and the Canada Nexus Consortium programme, in formation, sits within this region. Mexico also takes part in the Latin America and the Caribbean programme.
| Planned hub | Focus |
|---|---|
| Canada | National adaptation, sovereign compute, Indigenous and Arctic interfaces, infrastructure and North American coordination. |
| United States | Federal, state, Tribal and territorial interfaces; power, digital infrastructure, hazard resilience and supply chains. |
10Evidence and publication
A country risk record that others can examine.
Nexus Reports brings country risk, innovation capability and the National Portfolio together in one continuing publication programme. Each quarter answers a defined question; the fourth edition is the annual flagship.
Q1
State and agenda
What matters this year, and what is the starting position?
Q2
Evidence and build
What new evidence and capability have been developed?
Q3
Stress test and readiness
What do scenarios and tests reveal?
Q4
Annual synthesis
What did the year establish, and what changes next?
A planned report appears as a publication intention, never as a cover without a release. Release follows review, not publicity deadlines.
Fig. 06A country report edition, with its evidence labels and version history.Illustrative interface; placeholder values, not results.
11Neutrality and integrity
Trust is earned through work others can examine.
Our ambition is to be an internationally trusted reference institution for systemic risk, frontier technology and resilience. That standing can only be earned, so these commitments govern everything we publish.
01
Evidence before claims
We state what has been observed, estimated, modelled or assumed, with its uncertainty, before we state a conclusion.
02
Records before status
A role, a partnership or a capability exists when a record shows it. A logo, a meeting or a plan is not that record.
03
Readiness before handoff
Work passes to a decision-maker only when it is fit for that step, with its limits stated beside its findings.
04
Neutral by design
No funder, sponsor, member or host can buy a finding, a ranking, an appointment or the suppression of a limitation.
05
Decisions stay with competent actors
We prepare evidence. Governments, operators and licensed institutions decide and act under their own authority.
06
Correction is part of the work
Anyone can challenge a public finding without membership or payment. A correction creates a new recorded version, never a silent edit.
| Decision | Who is accountable | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated consortium secretariat | GCRI Canada, within the approved lead mandate | One coordinated programme with separate institutional responsibilities |
| Evidence, methods and technical assistance | GCRI technical and evidence stewardship | National questions become testable work and reusable capability |
| National agenda and participation | Competent National Nexus structures | National ownership precedes federation |
| Scientific and editorial acceptance | Qualified, conflict-managed reviewers and the publisher | Findings are accepted on method, not on who funded or hosted the work |
| Official decisions and execution | The relevant government, operator or licensed institution | Nexus prepares evidence and supports lawful continuation |
Raise a concern
Corrections
Scientific corrections, integrity concerns and complaints are open to anyone, at integrity@therisk.global. A complaint is reviewed by someone not responsible for the decision.
Privacy and security
Privacy requests go to the Interim Privacy Officer at privacy@therisk.global, and security reports to security@therisk.global.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding concerns use a restricted route at safeguarding@therisk.global. Nexus is not an emergency service; in danger, contact local emergency services.
12Our organizations
One institution, two organizations.
GCRI works through GCRI Canada, its lead organization, and GCRI US, its United States institution. Each keeps its own legal identity, governance and responsibilities. Together they carry GCRI's role as the research, development and policy pillar of Nexus Consortiums.
Lead organization · Toronto, ON M4R 1V2
GCRI Canada
A Canadian not-for-profit organization: Consortium Secretariat and global contracting party in support of the national and regional consortiums. It runs the global-to-local deployment of Nexus Foundry in their service under a strict not-for-profit mandate.
United States institution of GCRI
GCRI US
The United States institution of GCRI, a separate organization within Nexus Consortiums with its own legal identity, governance and responsibilities. It works within GCRI's mandate for research, development and policy.
Three pillar institutions, one coordinated programme
Nexus Foundry is operated at national and regional level by Nexus Consortiums through their host and lead organizations, within a multilateral programme led by three not-for-profit pillar institutions on a public-private-planet partnership.
| Institution | Leads on | Home |
|---|---|---|
| The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI): GCRI Canada and GCRI US | Research, development and policy research; Consortium Secretariat; technical stewardship of the Nexus infrastructure | Canada and the United States |
| The Global Risks Forum (GRF) | Leadership, institutional dialogue and governance of the Nexus Universe annual programme | Switzerland |
| The Global Risks Alliance (GRA) | Translating risk evidence into finance, insurance and development-readiness questions | United States |
Shared branding does not make GCRI the legal parent, treasury, employer or regulator of any participant.
GCRI Canada legal record
| Legal name | The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation |
|---|---|
| Organization | Canadian not-for-profit organization with its registered office in Ontario |
| Registered office | Toronto, ON M4R 1V2 |
| Operating model | Not-for-profit. Services support research, development and public-interest use in non-profit projects; any fees support operation and are not donations. |
| Governing law | Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein |
| Privacy Officer | Interim Privacy Officer, GCRI Canada, privacy@therisk.global |
13Statuses and memberships
Where GCRI takes part.
These statuses and memberships belong to GCRI. They do not extend to GRF, GRA or participating institutions, and they are not endorsements of Nexus programmes by the bodies named.
01
Special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
02
Member of the Civil Society Policy Forum of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
03
Member of the Santiago Network for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
04
Observer of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
05
Member of TrustLaw, the global pro bono legal programme of the Thomson Reuters Foundation
06
Member of Alliance 2030, Canada's national network for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
07
Member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
08
Lead organization of the Nexus Consortium 2030 Horizon
14Work with GCRI
Bring the questions that matter most.
Each route begins with a scoping conversation and a defined first outcome. Cooperation with governments and public institutions never depends on buying a membership tier.
Governments and agencies
Country-scoping dialogue
A scoping note, an authority map, a first-quarter baseline plan and a decision on whether to proceed.
UN and development institutions
Programme cooperation
A concept note, a results and evidence plan, roles, and a data and rights schedule, through your own instruments.
Operators and enterprises
Infrastructure and sector missions
A dependency study, a controlled test design, options with their limitations and a handoff to the operator.
Research and technology teams
Research, review and testbeds
A protocol, contribution and rights terms, and a publication route that keeps negative findings possible.
Institutions, leaders and experts
NNC, NLC and NWG
A contribution plan for institutions, a leadership baseline for leaders, and bounded supervised work for experts, with no fee for ordinary working-group participation.
Communities and the public
Questions, knowledge and concerns
An acknowledgement and a reasoned disposition. No membership or account is needed to report harm or correct public information.
Open now: information and enquiries. Enquiries go to the Secretariat and the regional and country desks, which give each one a reference. Applications, contributions, computing allocations and event registration open only when their team, terms and review capacity are in place. Specific routes for privacy, security, integrity, media, partnerships, research and experts are on Contact GCRI.
15Institutional record
The dossier behind this page.
Each part of the institution's own record has a page of its own. A page states what is on record and what is not yet; nothing here is a figure, a ranking or an outcome.
Record 01
Mission
What GCRI exists to do, in its own words.
Record 02Leadership
Who leads the institution and the roles they hold.
Record 03Board and governance
How decisions are taken, by whom and on what record.
Record 04Institutional status
The legal form of each organization and what it is not.
Record 05History
How the institution came to its present form.
Record 06Annual review
The yearly account of governance and delivery, once released.
Record 07Strategy 2030
The objectives the institution has set itself.
Record 08Public accountability
What the institution publishes about itself, and where.
16Key terms
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this institution uses it on this page.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Nexus Consortiums | The global, regional and national organizing architecture through which countries run their programmes; it is not one legal person or a membership club. |
| Consortium Secretariat | The coordinating office of Nexus Consortiums, held by GCRI Canada in Toronto, which receives programme enquiries, gives each a reference and routes it. |
| GCRI US | The United States institution of GCRI, a separate organization with its own legal identity, which works within its own scope in the United States. |
| Technical assistance | Bounded capacity-building under a defined scope, with a named accountable party; it never includes procurement, financing or execution authority. |
17Questions
Common questions about GCRI.
What makes the Nexus approach different from sector risk assessment?
Sector assessments examine one system at a time. The Nexus approach models the dependencies between water, energy, food, health, biodiversity and critical infrastructure, tests compound and cascading scenarios, and keeps every kind of evidence labelled, so a country sees where one failure becomes many and which interventions strengthen several systems at once.
Is GCRI a government body or a regulator?
No. GCRI works through GCRI Canada, a Canadian not-for-profit organization, and GCRI US, a separate organization with its own legal identity. It provides research, technology and policy research; it holds no regulatory, sovereign or fiduciary authority, and its participation in international bodies does not confer any.
Does GCRI fund, invest in or approve projects?
No. GCRI prepares the evidence that competent institutions need. Finance and development readiness is led by The Global Risks Alliance, and lending, underwriting and investment decisions remain with licensed financial institutions.
Who owns a national programme and its data?
The country. National structures set the agenda, keep authority over their data and may decline participation or sharing. GCRI provides the technical infrastructure, methods and assistance under agreed scopes and rights.
How does GCRI relate to GRF and GRA?
The three are separate not-for-profit institutions that lead one programme. GCRI leads research, development and policy research and the Secretariat, GRF leads leadership, dialogue and the annual Nexus Universe programme, and GRA leads finance and development readiness.
How are findings checked and corrected?
Findings are linked to their sources, methods and review, with uncertainty and funding disclosed. Qualified reviewers who manage their conflicts accept findings on method. Anyone can write to integrity@therisk.global with a correction; an accepted correction creates a new recorded version and is published.
Related
The pillar institutions and the global consortium.
Consortium Secretariat
Build national capability for a world of connected risk.
The Secretariat confirms the right institutional route, the scope of useful work and the conditions for any further commitment. An enquiry does not create membership, an appointment or a service contract.