Open data matters most when the stakes are high: An open knowledge stack fostering responsible innovation for disaster preparedness

This repo hosts materials associated with a presentation given at the Grand Challenges Conferences on 24 March 2026 at the Futurium in Berlin.   Title: Open data matters most when the stakes are high: An open knowledge stack fostering responsible innovation for disaster preparedness   Abstract Disaster preparedness and response depend not only on technological capabilities but on innovation practices that are trusted, inclusive, and actionable before crises occur. This contribution conceptualizes responsible innovation as an open knowledge stack that integrates existing disaster response scenarios with large-scale open collaboration, FAIR data, reproducible methods, and diamond open access dissemination.   Although plans for the most likely disaster scenarios already exist at several levels, many details remain insufficiently shared or understood by all stakeholders before crises hit. This gap limits the ability of the uninitiated to engage effectively when rapid decisions are needed. By treating diverse knowledge sources - from community observations and collective memory to sensor networks and risk models - as public goods, the open stack combats misinformation and fosters the transparency and inclusivity that are essential for systemic risk mitigation.   Transparent workflows for generating, processing, and evaluating both existing information and knowledge gaps form the operational core of this stack, especially in light of the uncertainties and fast developments that frequently accompany crises. When assumptions, data, models and decision options are comprehensively shared in a FAIR and reproducible fashion, they become public tools for consensus-building, enabling community adoption, interdisciplinary reuse, institutional coordination, public scrutiny and meaningful adaptations to changing contexts.   We propose that reproducibility and openness serve as critical pre-disaster trust-building mechanisms. Stakeholders who engage with such shared, verifiable knowledge workflows and infrastructures in advance are better equipped to act decisively under pressure. Diamond open access completes the stack by removing financial and legal barriers, ensuring that vital insights remain immediately accessible to all.   By framing responsible innovation as a maintained, scalable system of knowledge workflows and associated infrastructure rather than ad hoc efforts, this work demonstrates how trust, preparedness and resilience can be strengthened amid growing systemic risks and transformation.