The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Technology relevant to health and biosecurity: what it can do, the constraints it faces and its consequences for people and institutions.
GCRI · Established · service level R0
Innovation at Health Nexus is the evaluation of technology relevant to health and biosecurity: the need it addresses, the evidence behind it, its constraints and its consequences for safety, rights and the environment. Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested in Nexus Universe; nothing is called proven before test and review, and no product is endorsed.
Fig.How a finding is reviewed before it is published. Design, not a record.
How far each division sits from a large city, with the roads and airports that carry patients and supplies, shown for Tanzania as an example geography for this subject.
Which problem does the technology address, and for whom?
What has been demonstrated, under what conditions, and what remains untested?
Cost, skills, infrastructure, data and governance requirements.
Effects on safety, rights, equity and the environment.
| Technology | What it could change | What remains to be shown |
|---|---|---|
| Wastewater surveillance | Community-level pathogen signals ahead of clinical reporting | Interpretation across sewer systems; coverage where sanitation is not networked |
| Genomic surveillance networks | Faster variant detection and tracing | Sequencing capacity and equitable data sharing |
| Climate-informed disease early warning | Lead time on vector-borne and waterborne outbreaks | Skill beyond seasonal patterns; links to response |
| Hospital resilience retrofits | Continuity through power and heat events | Cost, maintenance and verification |
| Distributed manufacturing of countermeasures | Less concentration in supply | Quality assurance and regulatory reliance |
Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested under controlled conditions through Nexus Universe. No technology is described as proven before it has been tested and reviewed.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Technology readiness level | A scale from basic principles to proven operation that describes how mature a technology is. |
| Responsible innovation | Anticipating and governing the effects of new technology together with society. |
| Testbed | A controlled setting, from a lab rig to a field site or sandbox, for trying a technology before it meets real conditions of use. |
| One Health | An integrated approach that aims to balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems, as the Quadripartite organizations define it. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
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.