The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
GRF · Innovation Nexus
Governed public-interest innovation and cross-sector technology cooperation oriented to demonstrable learning. Innovation Nexus is an established platform of The Global Risks Forum.
Regulatory sandbox · Cohort 2 · Example interface, not a record
| Parametric micro-cover | Insurance | Agreed | 8 of 12 | Testing |
| Flood sensor data market | Data | Partial | 7 of 12 | Conditions |
| AI permit triage | Public service | Agreed | 6 of 12 | Testing |
| Drone deliveries, medical | Logistics | Agreed | 12 of 12 | Exit test |
Innovation Nexus · Regulatory sandbox board. Regulatory sandbox board: example names and illustrative values, not a record.
Innovation Nexus studies how innovation is governed: the mandates, funding rules, standards, agreements and institutions that shape which technologies are developed, how they spread and who benefits. Its pages cover responsible and public interest innovation, ecosystems and regions, technology transfer, experimental governance and the frontier where AI, biotechnology, quantum and robotics meet. Each page sets out mechanisms, measures, sources, methods and the decisions they serve, with every value labelled by its evidence.
Public purpose, safeguards and accountability built into research, design and deployment, before harms are evidenced.
Researchers, firms, investors and public institutions, and the connections that turn knowledge into use.
Adoption conditions, absorptive capacity and the rules that move inventions from laboratory to use.
Mission-oriented programmes, innovation procurement and the evaluation of public value beyond outputs.
How gains and costs fall across workers, places and groups, and the trust that shapes uptake.
Sandboxes, pilots and testbeds run by competent authorities, and how their learning is evaluated.
Regional capacity, smart specialisation and the diffusion of technology between leading and lagging places.
Law, standards, export controls and international dialogue for AI, engineered biology, quantum and robotics.
Three families of instruments side by side against the baseline, each with its own lag and adoption speed, under the coverage and compliance you set; effect sizes are teaching values to replace with evidence. Scenario: named assumptions about the future, not a forecast. The map on this page shows China; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
Readouts
| Year | Baseline | Regulation | Economic incentive | Information and capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100.0 | 99.5 | 98.8 | 99.1 |
| 1 | 102.0 | 101.2 | 100.1 | 99.8 |
| 2 | 104.0 | 102.5 | 101.1 | 99.9 |
| 3 | 106.1 | 103.5 | 101.6 | 100.0 |
| 4 | 108.2 | 103.7 | 101.8 | 100.7 |
| 5 | 110.4 | 103.2 | 101.7 | 102.1 |
| 6 | 112.6 | 102.0 | 101.6 | 103.9 |
| 7 | 114.9 | 100.4 | 101.6 | 105.9 |
| 8 | 117.2 | 99.2 | 102.1 | 108.0 |
| 9 | 119.5 | 98.6 | 102.9 | 110.1 |
| 10 | 121.9 | 98.9 | 104.2 | 112.3 |
| 11 | 124.3 | 99.7 | 105.7 | 114.5 |
| 12 | 126.8 | 101.1 | 107.4 | 116.8 |
| 13 | 129.4 | 102.7 | 109.4 | 119.2 |
| 14 | 131.9 | 104.5 | 111.4 | 121.6 |
| 15 | 134.6 | 106.5 | 113.5 | 124.0 |
| 16 | 137.3 | 108.5 | 115.7 | 126.5 |
| 17 | 140.0 | 110.7 | 118.0 | 129.0 |
| 18 | 142.8 | 112.9 | 120.4 | 131.6 |
| 19 | 145.7 | 115.1 | 122.8 | 134.2 |
| 20 | 148.6 | 117.4 | 125.2 | 136.9 |
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page's map can draw:
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
Public purpose, safeguards and accountability.
TopicResearchers, builders and public institutions.
TopicAdoption conditions and capacity.
TopicMission-oriented programmes and public benefit.
TopicInequality and social impacts.
TopicSandboxes and evaluation without regulatory claims.
TopicRegional capacity and technology diffusion.
TopicCrossover with AI, biotech, quantum and robotics.
The steps an instrument takes from mandate to evaluation, each with the pillar that runs it, and the decisions that stay with the authority. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows China; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
Innovation governance is the set of mandates, funding rules, standards, agreements and institutions that shape which technologies are developed, how they spread and who benefits. Innovation Nexus, Global Risks Forum's platform for it, covers responsible and public interest innovation, ecosystems and regions, technology transfer, experimental governance and frontier technologies.
Innovation policy; applied researchers; entrepreneurs; institutional innovators.
Innovation policy analysis; responsible experimentation; capacity building.
Innovation programme designs; public-value evaluation guides.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Frontier technology risk standards: the hazards it names, the systems and communities that carry the loss, the controls and institutions that dampen it and the data that observe it. Pick an initiating event and step through the cascade to see where mandates meet and which decisions fall to whom. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every weight is a stated assumption. An exercise for dialogue, not a forecast, an assessment or a position. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
Systems and couplings
Controls
NS-0 Constitution and principlesNS-10 Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)NS-11 Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-12 Software, model and AI/ML artefacts (supply chain, model cards, dataset sheets)NRS-H104 Hazard family: Quantum technology and cryptographic transition (NHS-1 tech.quantum)NRS-T9 Quantum technology and cryptographic transition riskNRS-T0 Exponential technology risk and responsible innovationNRS-H109 Hazard family: Energy-transition technology failures (NHS-1 tech.energy-transition)NRS-M19 Method fabric: Cyber, AI and frontier technologyNRS-U12 Universe platform profile: Foresight NexusObservation
Example geography
New technologies rarely fail because the science is wrong. They fail, or cause harm, because institutions are not ready for them: rules written for older technologies, procurement that rewards the familiar, public bodies without the skills to evaluate what they are buying, and benefits that accrue to some while risks fall on others. At the same time, excessive caution has its own costs, leaving public problems unsolved and capability concentrated in a few places.
The difficulty is structural. Innovation is uncertain by nature, so its effects can only be partly known in advance. Decisions about research funding, standards, regulation and adoption are made by different institutions on different timescales, and the lessons from one pilot seldom reach the next. Frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum and robotics now cross sectors and borders faster than any single institution can follow.
Governing innovation well therefore means building the capacity to experiment responsibly, evaluate honestly, share what was learned and keep decisions with the authorities accountable for them. That is the field Innovation Nexus works in.
Why now: governed experimentation is spreading, from regulatory sandboxes to the AI testing regimes foreseen under the European Union AI Act (2024), and institutions need to know what a trial proved and what it did not. Innovation Nexus convenes the institutions that run and oversee trials, and a governed trial can be exercised in Universe under controlled conditions; reviewed lessons can inform Reports and common evaluation practice can be proposed to the Nexus Standards.
The instruments, mandates, actors and accountability arrangements a policymaker, diplomat or development agency works with, citing the agreements that set them. Structures follow the frameworks named. Any state or progress drawn is illustrative, not a record.
The kinds of instrument available on Innovation Nexus, by level of government and cooperation.
| Instrument type | Local | National | Regional | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regulatory | Zoning, building codes | Laws, standards, licensing | Harmonised rules | Conventions and treaties |
| Economic | Local levies, grants | Budget lines, taxes, insurance schemes | Risk pools, regional funds | Financing mechanisms |
| Information | Local warnings | Disclosure, early warning, statistics | Data sharing arrangements | Global monitoring and reporting |
| Institutional | Local committees | Lead agencies, coordination councils | Regional bodies and secretariats | Multilateral mandates |
| Cooperative | Community agreements | Partnership compacts | Memoranda and joint programmes | Agreements and joint commitments |
How commitments on Innovation Nexus are held to account, from commitment to correction.
Each dialogue is designed to start from a stated question, bring in the institutions that actually hold the relevant decisions, and end with a published record of what was agreed, who committed to what and where participants disagreed. Learning counts only when it can be shown.
Innovation policy analysis, responsible experimentation and capacity building for public and institutional innovators.
Innovation programme designs and public-value evaluation guides, published once reviewed.
Innovation policy specialists, applied researchers, entrepreneurs and institutional innovators.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings. Innovation Nexus does not fund ventures, select suppliers or run regulatory sandboxes.
Night lights, population density and flood water over China, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Connected activity, for this page
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Connected activity, framed on China.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Layers and dates
Innovation Nexus applies three methods from the STEM Commons hosted by The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI): policy, institutional and decision science, artificial intelligence and machine learning and systems engineering. See the STEM foundation page.
At GCRI, Labs runs experiments and protocols, while Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems, Advanced Industry and Robotics and Future of Work and Skills study the technologies and their effects. At Global Risks Alliance (GRA), Private Equity Nexus and AI and Financial Model Risk build shared industry understanding of how innovation reaches portfolios and financial models. Within GRF, Policy Nexus and AI and Digital Governance are close neighbours. See counterparts across the Consortium.
Work that is ready to be built or tested moves through the work cycle: it can draw on the Foundry systems NXS-LAB (research, experiments and simulations) and NXS-HUB (knowledge, records and learning), be exercised in Universe, where a responsible innovation challenge is a candidate mission theme, and be published in the Exponential Technology report series. Mission selection is decided by GRF within its instruments, and nothing is active until it is on the record.
Every claim on Innovation Nexus rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
Innovation Nexus works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year's feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
and 14 more
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (OECD AI Principles) | OECD | Values-based principles for trustworthy AI and recommendations to governments on policy, investment, capacity and international cooperation |
| EU Artificial Intelligence Act | European Union | Risk-based obligations for AI systems and general-purpose AI models, prohibited practices, conformity assessment and AI regulatory sandboxes |
| Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law | Council of Europe | Binding treaty obligations for activities across the AI life cycle consistent with human rights, democracy and the rule of law |
| UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence | UNESCO | Values, principles and policy action areas for ethical AI, with a readiness assessment methodology for member states |
| ISO/IEC 42001 Artificial intelligence management system | ISO and IEC (JTC 1/SC 42) | Requirements for establishing, operating and improving an organisation's management system for AI |
| NIST AI Risk Management Framework | US National Institute of Standards and Technology | Voluntary functions to govern, map, measure and manage AI risks, with sector and technology profiles |
| Oslo Manual | OECD and Eurostat | Definitions and guidelines for collecting, reporting and using data on business innovation |
| ISO 56000 series on innovation management | ISO (TC 279) | Vocabulary, management system requirements and guidance for organisations that manage innovation |
| Patent Cooperation Treaty and Paris Convention | World Intellectual Property Organization | International filing of patent applications, national treatment and priority rights for industrial property |
| OECD Recommendation on Agile Regulatory Governance to Harness Innovation | OECD | Guidance on anticipatory regulation, experimentation including sandboxes, and international regulatory cooperation |
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Innovation Nexus links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform's process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Innovation Nexus
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
Innovation Nexus home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Innovation Nexus platform.
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Innovation Nexus. Participate
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Write to the team with the cell's name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
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