The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)

Compensation

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• Job Title: Founding Institutional Steward (University Leadership Seat) — Core Stewardship Committee (Nexus Ecosystem) • Target profiles: President / Provost | Vice-President (Research) | Dean (with institutional authority) | Executive Director (major research institute) | Sponsored research leadership (delegated signing power) | Distinguished former university executives • Mandate: Mobilizes a university as a sovereign-compatible Host Institution—operating competence cells that produce multisig-validated, decision-grade evidence and readiness artifacts for all-hazards resilience across the water-food-energy-health nexus. • Location: Global (Remote) • Engagement: Stewardship appointment (non-executive; mandate-respecting; no regulated execution) • Term: 3 years (renewable) • Apply: https://therisk.global/work/job/founding-institutional-steward-university-leadership-seat/ The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) is an institutional steward of the Nexus public-good core—delivering decision-grade evidence, integrity standards, and zero-trust governance that help sovereigns and partners operate facility-grade resilience programs across the water-food-energy-health nexus and critical infrastructure. We support governments, multilaterals, regulators, DFIs, central banks, humanitarian agencies, utilities, insurers/reinsurers, critical-infrastructure operators, research networks, and National Working Groups (NWGs) with systems built to clear procurement, fiduciary, safeguards, cyber, and audit scrutiny. Our standing is reinforced by formal engagements including United Nations Special Consultative Status (since 2023), World Bank Civil Society membership, International Monetary Fund Civil Society membership, Santiago Network membership, Thomson Reuters Foundation TrustLaw membership, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) membership, and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) observer status. The Nexus Ecosystem (what you are stepping into) • Nexus is an “all-of-society, all-hazards” operating system for the human-machine-nature era. It is designed to convert complex, multi-domain signals into decision-grade evidence and institution-ready operating artifacts for the water-food-energy-health nexus and the infrastructures and markets that sustain it. • Nexus is built as a distributed federation: each country runs sovereign implementations through National Working Groups (NWGs), while regional hubs provide interoperability, replication economics, and shared artifact libraries. No nation is asked to surrender control of sensitive data or decision authority. • Nexus operates through competence cells: accountable, auditable, cross-disciplinary teams housed inside host institutions and partner agencies that (i) produce validated evidence packs, (ii) run controlled simulations and drills, (iii) maintain sector playbooks, and (iv) sustain “always-ready” operations under surge. • Nexus uses zero-trust governance: multi-sector Helix Councils act as multisig validators (human-in-the-loop) to prevent capture, prevent silent drift, and preserve legitimacy—especially under stress and contested events. The mandate (why this seat exists) • The world has entered an era of persistent polycrisis: hazards now compound through infrastructure interdependencies, information ecosystems, supply chains, and financial feedback loops. • The limiting factor is increasingly not capital or even “data”—it is the ability to convert signals into verifiable decisions and time-bound action with audit-grade records that survive scrutiny. • Universities are uniquely positioned to host this missing layer because they can provide: • a. research integrity and reproducibility, • b. neutral convening power, and • c. high-skill talent pipelines, • while remaining structurally capable of maintaining public-trust boundaries. The Stewardship Committee seat (what the seat is) • This is a Founding Institutional Steward seat on the GCRI Core Stewardship Committee—a small, high-trust cohort that anchors the university segment of the federation. • The seat is designed for leaders who can activate institutional participation, including delegated authority to: • a. designate a host unit and accountable leads, • b. convene cross-faculty and cross-partner capacity, and • c. align university contributions to national NWG priorities and governance discipline. • The seat is not ceremonial. It is a stewardship office: the standard for participation is “artifact-producing, validation-ready, governance-disciplined.” What you would activate as a Founding Institutional Steward (Host Institution role)Host Institution function (what “host” means) • Your university becomes a sovereignty-compatible node in the Nexus federation: a place where competence cells operate, evidence packs are produced, validation sessions are convened, and national programs can scale without reinventing methods. • You provide the institutional substrate for: • a. research integrity and reproducibility, • b. controlled handling (where required), • c. neutral convening and competition-safe collaboration, and • d. talent + training pipelines linked to national deployment. Competence cells (how work is structured) Competence cells are cross-disciplinary teams that produce specific, auditable outputs, including: a. Evidence & Assurance Cell (AEPs, indices, validation packs) b. Infrastructure Resilience Cell (critical services modeling, outage readiness, cascading failure) c. Water-Food-Energy-Health Cell (nexus scenario design, stress tests, MRV) d. Cyber + Info Integrity Cell (supply chain risk, disinformation impacts, operational resilience drills) e. Safeguards + Rights Cell (do-no-harm, grievance readiness, vulnerable groups protections) NWGs (National Working Groups) — the delivery spine • NWGs are the national delivery units that localize Nexus: they translate national priorities into structured challenge cycles, produce decision-grade artifacts, and operate readiness routines (monthly cadence; quarterly release discipline). • NWGs integrate the quintuple helix: • a. public authorities, • b. research institutions, • c. industry and critical infrastructure operators, • d. civil society and media, and • e. community and Indigenous leadership. • Each participating institution appoints PR / DPR (Principal Responsible Person / Deputy Principal Responsible Person) to ensure decisions convert into action with accountable follow-through. Exponential technology posture (what Nexus integrates—and also governs as risk) Nexus integrates frontier capabilities with governance-grade assurance while also treating those same technologies as potential systemic risks: • AI / ML & foundation models — forecasting, anomaly detection, decision support; with model risk controls, bias/brittleness tests, and reproducibility gates. • EO / GIS / remote sensing — hazard detection, exposure mapping, damage assessment; with lineage, uncertainty bands, and anti-spoofing controls. • Digital twins & simulation — stress testing and cascading-failure modeling across WFEH systems; with scenario discipline and audit trails. • IoT / edge telemetry — continuity and outage intelligence; with device attestation, calibration, drift detection, and safe integration boundaries. • Privacy-preserving compute — confidential compute patterns (e.g., TEEs/MPC/federated approaches) to support sovereign data zones. • Cyber resilience & secure supply chain — SBOM/provenance, secure release discipline, vulnerability handling, third-party concentration risk. • Interoperability & evidence integrity — ontology, schemas, controlled vocabulary, and “no silent edits” correction chains. • HPC & national-scale modeling — multi-hazard modeling, scenario libraries, and operational drills. Priority domains (where your institution can lead) • Water security and watershed intelligence (drought/flood/quality; allocation; infrastructure stress) • Food systems resilience (yield shocks; logistics; price transmission; nutrition) • Energy systems and outage risk (grid stress; fuel supply; interdependency with water/telecom) • Health security (public health surge; service continuity; environmental-health coupling) • Cyber + information integrity (operational resilience, misinformation impacts on response) • Critical infrastructure interdependencies (telecom/transport/finance; cascading failure) • Sovereign risk transmission (fiscal stress, contingent liabilities, macro-risk channels) What you bring to the table (value proposition at institutional scale) As a Founding Institutional Steward, you can uniquely contribute: • Institutional legitimacy — neutral convening that reduces political friction and vendor capture risk. • Scientific defensibility — reproducibility discipline, uncertainty disclosure, methods governance. • Capability concentration — rapid assembly of cross-faculty competence cells that produce deployable outputs. • Talent production — fellows, validators, red teams, and operators trained to consistent standards. • Long-horizon continuity — durability beyond election cycles and procurement churn. What you will do (stewardship remit) • Stand up the Host Institution posture: designate a Nexus host function, name cell leads, and establish an internal operating cadence. • Activate NWG delivery: co-convene national partners, align PR/DPR appointments, and sponsor initial challenge cycles. • Build the artifact pipeline: ensure your institution can produce validation-ready outputs (evidence packs, methods, simulation results, publishable summaries). • Uphold integrity controls: enforce COI disclosures, recusal discipline, controlled handling where required, and no-silent-edits correction chains. • Advance technology responsibly: accelerate adoption of exponential tech while explicitly identifying, stress-testing, and mitigating its systemic risks.