GCRI · Legal
Contributor terms
These contributor terms apply when you contribute data, evidence, corrections, local knowledge, text, figures, documentation or code to The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for publication or for use in its programme, through a form on therisk.global, by email or through a code repository. They are an agreement between you and The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada) and apply together with the terms of use. You keep ownership of your contribution. These terms take effect on 19 October 2026, and they apply to each contribution you make after that date.
01Contents
Contributor terms in four parts.
02Your sign-off
What you confirm with each contribution.
By contributing, you confirm the following, in the manner of the Developer Certificate of Origin.
- The contribution was created in whole or in part by you, and you have the right to submit it under these terms; or
- It is based on earlier work that, to the best of your knowledge, is covered by an open licence allowing you to submit it, with your changes, under these terms, and you have identified that work and its licence; or
- It was provided to you by another person who confirmed one of the two statements above, and you have not modified it
- You understand that the contribution and a record of it, including your name or chosen credit and your sign-off, are kept and may be published indefinitely
For code, add a line "Signed-off-by: Your Name <your email>" to each commit. For other contributions, tick the consent box on the form or write "I agree to the GCRI contributor terms" in your message.
03Licence
The rights you grant to GCRI Canada.
- 01
Copyright licence
You grant GCRI Canada a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and irrevocable licence to use, reproduce, adapt, translate, publish, distribute and display your contribution, and to sublicense it, including the right to release it, alone or as part of a larger work, under CC BY 4.0 for text, figures and data, or under the open-source licence of the repository for code.
- 02
Patent licence
For code and other technical contributions, you grant GCRI Canada and every recipient of the work a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and irrevocable patent licence to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise transfer the contribution and its combination with the work it was submitted to, under the patent claims you can license that the contribution necessarily infringes. If anyone starts patent litigation alleging that the contribution infringes a patent, the licence granted to that person ends on the date the litigation is filed.
- 03
Credit
We credit you as you ask, or not at all if you prefer. We may decline, edit or not publish a contribution, and publication does not mean that GCRI adopts your views.
05Data, people and communities
What a contribution must respect.
- 01
No confidential or restricted material
Do not contribute confidential information, trade secrets, classified or export-controlled technology, or data you received under terms that forbid sharing it.
- 02
Personal information
Do not include personal information about other people unless you collected it lawfully and it is needed. Your own contact details are handled under the privacy notice and are not published unless you ask.
- 03
Community and Indigenous knowledge
Contribute community or Indigenous knowledge only with the free, prior and informed consent of the people who hold it, and tell us any protocol that applies. Protected knowledge never enters public examples or model training.
- 04
Withdrawal
You may ask us to stop using a contribution at contact@therisk.global. We stop further use where we can, but copies already released under an open licence cannot be recalled.
06Questions
Questions and answers.
Do I give up ownership of my contribution?
No. You keep ownership and grant GCRI Canada a licence, including the right to publish the contribution under CC BY 4.0 or the repository's open-source licence.
Do I need a Signed-off-by line for a data correction sent by email?
No. Write that you agree to the GCRI contributor terms in your message, or tick the consent box on the form. The Signed-off-by line is for code commits.
My employer owns what I write at work. Can I still contribute?
Yes, if your employer has allowed you to contribute under these terms or has waived its rights in the contribution.
Am I paid, or do I become a member, by contributing?
No. A contribution creates no payment, employment, membership or appointment.
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. 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.
Legal
Legal documents.
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.
Not for profit
Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.
Who funds us
GCRI is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.
Independence
Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.
Licence
Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.