The founding practitioner cohort is open now. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE! Here is what that means and what it requires.

Training will start in May 2026!

*Channel partner information is separate and coming soon!

HSRL practitioner certification is the credential that makes the diagnostic defensible. A practitioner who holds it has completed the HSRL methodology training, met the professional standards the certification requires, and is authorized to conduct independent governance assessments, issue SHA-256 signed Governance Condition Records filed to the Structural Governance Ledger, and maintain an active listing in the HSRL practitioner directory.

What the founding period covers

Certification and annual licensing are free for the founding period. The founding period runs for twelve months from your first signed engagement not from the date your credential is issued. The free period rewards practitioners who do the work, not practitioners who hold the credential without using it.

After the founding period ends, certification and annual licensing move to the published practitioner pricing for that practice year. These fees are built intentionally to ensure the HSRL practitioner can be financially successful in their practice while also getting a quality accurate document that is audit grade. The per-record methodology license fee remains the same throughout.

How the per-record fee works

HSRL charges a methodology license fee on every Governance Condition Record issued. This fee applies during the founding period on the same terms as post-founding. The free founding period covers your certification and licensing overhead it does not waive the per-record fee on work you deliver.

The per-record fee covers three specific things HSRL provides on every record:

• The pre-built institutional record architecture. You do not design the GCR format or build the SHA-256 signing infrastructure. You work inside a pre-built evidentiary record system that carries the institutional standing of the HSRL methodology behind every record you issue.

• The SHA-256 signed immutable record. The signature establishes that the governance state was documented before deployment and cannot be reconstructed after harm occurs. That immutability is what separates a GCR from a document a practitioner produced independently. The signing infrastructure and the SGL that holds the record are HSRL's.

• HSRL human review for evidence authenticity. Before a GCR is signed and filed, HSRL reviews the evidentiary basis documented for each condition determination. This confirms that every finding is supported by actual evidence — not practitioner judgment without documentation. This review is what makes HSRL-certified mean something different from practitioner-asserted. It is the quality control layer that places HSRL's institutional standing behind every record you issue.

The per-record fee is not a royalty and not a franchise cut. It is payment for three specific things of real value that HSRL provides on every record and that the practitioner does not build or maintain independently.

Your margin on every engagement is the difference between what you charge your client and the HSRL methodology license fee for that record type. You set your own pricing within the published range based on engagement complexity and your own market positioning. The per-record fee is fixed by record type regardless of where you price within the range so your margin improves as you become more efficient at conducting the diagnostic.

These per-record fees can also be paid directly to HSRL by your client.

GCR-003 post-incident records are the one exception. GCR-003 is issued by the HSRL founding director only. There is no practitioner split on GCR-003 because there is no practitioner involvement. This record type remains permanently HSRL-direct.

What the certification requires

Active Errors and Omissions insurance with a current certificate of insurance on file with HSRL at all times. If your coverage lapses your directory listing is suspended until a current certificate is received. HSRL practitioners issue signed governance records used in procurement decisions, legal proceedings, and oversight submissions. E&O coverage protects both you and the clients who rely on those records.

Vendor independence. You cannot conduct or issue a GCR for a system sold or operated by a vendor you have a current or recent commercial relationship with. You must disclose prior vendor relationships before accepting any engagement in that domain. HSRL retains the right to require reassignment to an independent practitioner based on that disclosure.

No building what you certify. You define what each condition requires and assess whether the organization has met it. You do not draft the policies, write the documentation, or build the governance structures you will later verify. The assessment function and the implementation function must be separated within the same GCR cycle. A practitioner who builds what they certify is not an independent auditor they are a contractor self-certifying their own work. All clients get access to the free remediation center that walks them through how to build their governance internally. A practitioner may support on that work as long as they are not the practitioner doing the diagnostics.

Findings integrity. If a condition is absent, the finding is absent. The GCR reflects what the evidence supports. Client pressure is not a basis for changing a finding. Clients may dispute a finding through the formal HSRL amendment process, which requires new evidence and a second practitioner review. It does not involve the original practitioner revising their finding under client pressure.

Confidentiality and conflict disclosure. You must proactively disclose any potential conflict of interest before accepting an engagement. Client-specific information obtained in an assessment engagement cannot be used to benefit a competing client, a vendor relationship, or any third party. Case studies derived from client engagements require client consent before submission to the HSRL case database.

These are not aspirational standards. They are conditions of maintaining an active credential. Practitioners who do not meet them have their credentials suspended or revoked. Revocation is permanent and noted in the HSRL public credential registry.

Who this is for

Professionals who are already doing some version of this work without the framework or the record. Governance professionals, forensic accountants, auditors, legal practitioners, procurement consultants, safety engineers, civil rights advocates, policy researchers, government technology professionals, systems analysts, and researchers who already work with or around the automated systems the HSRL framework is built to assess.

HSRL certification adds a validated methodology, a defensible record architecture, and a credential to domain expertise you already have. It is not a career change. It is infrastructure for work you are already doing.

The founding cohort is deliberately cross-domain. The methodology travels across domains. What makes a practitioner effective is the intersection of HSRL methodology and their own domain expertise - a forensic accountant assessing financial systems, a safety engineer assessing healthcare AI, a civil rights advocate assessing predictive policing. Domain expertise is what you bring. Methodology and record architecture is what HSRL provides.

Who this is not for

Vendor employees, vendor-affiliated consultants, or anyone whose income depends on a specific system's continued operation. The independence requirement is structural, not optional. A practitioner with a financial stake in a system's continued operation cannot independently assess its governance. That disqualification is not a judgment about integrity — it is what makes the certification mean something to the agencies, oversight bodies, and legal proceedings that rely on it.

What happens after you apply

HSRL reviews every application for professional fit, domain background, and independence. If the fit is there, you will be contacted to walk through the certification process, confirm your professional standards compliance, and get you into the founding cohort. The application is not a commitment. The certification agreement is.

The founding cohort is open now. It will not stay open indefinitely. When the founding period closes, certification and licensing move to published pricing and the founding practitioner designation is no longer available.