Partnerships — Horizon Search Institute

Current collaborations

HSI and NYU PREP

A co-published Special Report with the NYU Peace Research and Education Program on consultation, authority, and who is actually consulted when institutions claim a consultative process. PREP’s Peace AI programme works on inclusive AI governance and community-centered approaches across Kenya, Malawi, and the Philippines.

HSI lists a named institutional collaboration only after work has been agreed and begun. Individual contributors and their universities are credited on the People and publication pages; those affiliations are not presented as institutional partnerships.

Forms of collaboration

Partnerships begin with a research question, a defined contribution from each institution, and written terms covering the work and its independence. Partners bring questions, data, and settings the Institute could not reach alone.

Research and co-publication

Joint inquiry with a partner institution, published under both names. The research question is agreed at the outset; the findings are not. Co-publication means shared authorship and shared editorial standards, not shared approval rights.

Typical partners: university centers, policy institutes, other independent research organizations.

Field and case-study partnerships

Access to a real institutional setting: a governance function being rebuilt, an AI deployment under supervision, a workforce transition in progress. Cases can be published named or anonymized, agreed before work begins.

Typical partners: regulated firms, health systems, public agencies, large employers.

Academic collaborations

Standing relationships with faculty and research centers: shared supervision of contributing researchers, seminar exchange, methods review, and joint work on questions that sit across a domain boundary.

Typical partners: departments, labs, and centers in policy, law, computer science, and management.

Convening partnerships

Co-hosting a salon, working session, or field session: venue, programming, and the invitation list built jointly. Convenings are held under the Chatham House Rule, and a partner’s involvement is disclosed to those invited.

Typical partners: host institutions, multilateral bodies, universities, professional associations.

Foundation and institutional funding

Program or project funding for a defined line of research, such as one of the Institute’s inquiries. Grants are scoped to a question and a period, not to a conclusion. Contributions of $25,000 or more are disclosed in the HSI Outlook.

Typical partners: foundations, corporate philanthropy, public research funders.

Data or subject-matter contributions

Datasets, survey access, technical review, or practitioner expertise contributed to a project. Contributors are credited; contribution does not carry review rights over the analysis it informs.

Typical partners: data holders, industry bodies, senior practitioners and subject-matter experts.

From inquiry to research agreement

The sequence is proportionate to the work. Timing depends on the research question, access, conflicts review, funding, and the responsibilities each institution assumes.

Step 1The question

We start from a question, not a deliverable. If the question does not sit under one of the four research domains, or if HSI is not the right institution to answer it, we say so early. The Institute’s current inquiries are the fastest way to see where a partnership would land.

Step 2Scope and terms

A short written scope covers the question, the contribution each side makes, the output and its timing, attribution, and how the work is disclosed. Editorial independence is stated explicitly rather than assumed.

Step 3Conflicts review

Every partnership is screened against the Institute’s conflict of interest policy and its entity separation policy. Funding from foreign government or state-linked entities is reviewed and disclosed regardless of size.

Step 4The work

Partners see the work as it develops and can correct factual errors about their own institution. They do not review conclusions, approve publication, or receive editorial input. Where a partner disagrees with a finding, we will publish the disagreement alongside it.

The operating rule for every collaboration

Partnership does not confer control over findings. A partner may contribute evidence, access, expertise, or funding and may correct factual statements about its own institution. It may not direct, approve, delay, or suppress HSI’s analysis.

What this means concretely

Partners may correct factual statements about their own institution; they may not revise HSI analysis or judgment. Where a project is funded or otherwise supported by a partner, that relationship is disclosed with the publication.

Contributions of $25,000 or more are disclosed, though a donor may elect anonymity, in which case the contribution is reported in aggregate. Funding from foreign-government or state-linked entities is reviewed and disclosed regardless of size. The full position is set out under funding and transparency.

Horizon Search Institute is the registered trade name of HSI Research Foundation, a Delaware nonprofit corporation (EIN 42-1954110). Tax-deductible contributions are received through the Foundation’s fiscal sponsor, Fiscal Sponsorship Allies, Inc. (EIN 85-0839183), a 501(c)(3) public charity that retains variance power over donated funds as required by law.

Tell us the question you are working on

The most useful first message is short: who you are, the question your institution is facing, and what you could contribute to answering it. Relevant inquiries are reviewed by the Institute; response timing depends on current research and operating capacity.

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