The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
Research dialogue informs decisions; it does not make them. This page locates the people and bodies that hold decision rights over research and its use: public authorities that fund research and set policy, institutions that govern research quality, the communities whose knowledge and interests are at stake, and the researchers themselves. It also sets out the boundary of Research Nexus, which convenes and records but never decides for anyone. It complements discipline and institutional issues.
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For decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, flood water and night lights, framed on Europe; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
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GeographyFor decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, flood water and night lights, framed on Europe; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.
Decision rights in Research Nexus define who decides what in research and evidence as well as governance and institutions: public authorities take statutory decisions, operators and institutions take operational ones, and affected communities, including Indigenous rights holders, hold rights of consent and participation. The platform brings evidence and options to those who decide and takes no decision itself.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Ministries, research councils and legislatures decide research funding, priorities and how evidence is used in public decisions.
Universities, institutes, journals and integrity offices govern review, misconduct investigations and correction.
Communities, including Indigenous rights holders, decide on use of their knowledge and data and on research that affects them.
| Decision | Holder | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Funding priorities | Research councils and funders | Peer review, public calls |
| Ethics approval | Research ethics committees | Institutional and national rules |
| Publication | Editors and authors | Peer review, COPE norms |
| Use in policy | The deciding authority | Its own procedure |
Research Nexus holds none of these decisions; dialogues can make them visible to each other.
Researchers decide on their questions and methods within ethics approvals and funding terms, and they are responsible for honest reporting, disclosure of conflicts and correction of errors. Academic freedom protects their ability to publish findings that are inconvenient to funders or authorities.
Brings researchers and institutions together on agreed questions, with balanced participation.
Sets out how different institutions and countries approach the same evidence.
Keeps a transparent record of what was discussed and agreed.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings. Research Nexus does not fund, commission, review or certify research, and its records carry no binding force.
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) conducts and publishes science through Nexus Reports. GRF convenes and governs dialogue. The Global Risks Alliance (GRA) builds shared industry understanding of what evidence means for finance, for example through Financial Regulations Nexus. None of them takes decisions that belong to authorities or institutions.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Decision rights matrix | A table showing which body proposes, approves, executes and oversees each decision. |
| Competent authority | The body that a law or regulation designates to exercise a given power or duty, such as a supervisor, a civil protection agency or a ministry; only it can take the decisions the law assigns to it. |
| Free, prior and informed consent | The right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent, without coercion, in advance and with full information, to measures that affect their lands, territories and rights, as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out. |
| Subsidiarity | The principle that a decision is taken at the lowest level able to take it well, with a higher level acting only where the objective cannot be achieved closer to the people concerned; the Treaty on European Union states 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.