IRTO
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| Organisation overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 18 March 2053 |
| Type | Treaty organisation |
| Jurisdiction |  The Coalition |
| Headquarters | International Centre for Dimensional Research, Dunwich City, Northern European International Zone 52°16′40″N 1°37′55″E / 52.2779°N 1.63191°E |
| Motto | Pushing the furthest frontiers for a brighter future. |
| Employees |
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| Annual budget |  U€3.7 quadrillion; FY 2273 |
| Organisation executive |
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| Website | irto |
IRTO, the Interdimensional Research Treaty Organisation, is an interstellar scientific body headquartered in Dunwich City and created in 2053 by the ratification of the Einstein-Rosen Accords. It is responsible for funding and coordinating active and passive research into alternate realities through the use of bridge technology, as well as the field of exophysics, and is overseen by Raven, humanity's regulator for reality-altering activities. IRTO is led by a president elected by signatory states, the current of whom is Prof. Tadao Oyama. The organisation was founded by Prof. Alfred Sterling, an early pioneer of bridge technology, and Dr. Wilhelm Schmitz, inventor of the galraite technology critical in bridge manifold generation.
IRTO is transparent and equally controlled by the interstellar community. Its activities are shared among all signatory states, and the organisation works in earnest to push science forward to benefit all of humanity. It is headquartered at the International Centre for Dimensional Research (ICDR) located in Dunwich City, opposite Black Mountain. Like Raven, IRTO receives its funding directly from Coalition members; though it is also funded by private corporations. Like CERN, IRTO has its own top-level domain, .irto.
Facilities
IRTO oversees bridge laboratories controlled by the scientific communities of each member country. Each facility is traditionally named after key individuals involved in the development of bridge technology, such as Wilhelm Schmitz and Corey Wall. Examples of IRTO-overseen bridge laboratories include the Corey Wall Research Facility located in Aberystwyth, the Wilhelm Schmitz Research Facility in Hamburg, the Jacques Laurent-Bellecour Centre in Montreal, the Hades-4 Facility (冥界) in Shenzhen, and IRTO Siberia.
IRTO, as a coordination body, does not direct the operations of individual bridge laboratories. Instead, each member state has discretion over the direction of their country's facilities, and is afforded a high degree of freedom, provided they remain within the constraints of Dimensional Security Accords.
History
Origins
IRTO originated as a consequence of the ratification of the Einstein-Rosen Accords in 2053, which attempted to formalise humanity's first efforts in interdimensional travel and construct humanity's first bridge laboratory in Geneva, known as the Einstein-Rosen Complex (ERC). Its purpose was to ascertain whether bridge generation theories would actually work by attempting to open the first ever bridge. The project was ultimately successful; though it was only capable of sending unmanned probes through small tunnels, these initial experiments were the start of an explosion in popularity of the field of dimensional physics.
Funding Deficits
After the successful establishment of the first bridge at the ERC in 2077, IRTO's funding began to dry as governments lacking reasons to continue research amidst the growing Resource Crisis. The ERC, capable only of sending probes and lacking an effective targeting system, was unable to offer anything that could offset the crisis.
Megacorporations such as CORE Group took the stage during this period, utilising IRTO's proven research to construct their own superior bridge laboratories, designated as Gen 2. One such facility was the Kepler Centre for Dimensional Physics, which was constructed by CORE on behalf of the German government and leased out to IRTO.
First Incursion
On 21 March 2100, a catastrophic dimensional incursion occurred at the Kepler Centre, in an event that widely became known as the First Incursion. It released the Grey Mold into the surrounding environment, a rapidly self-replicating organism that would have led to the annihilation of Earth were it not for the intervention of Raven, secretly utilising Aegis Institute technology.
Post-incident investigations commissioned by the United Nations pinned institutional failures in IRTO and corporate negligence as primary causes of the incursion. This event widely led to IRTO being stripped of the remainder of its own regulatory powers and much greater power being granted to Raven after the Dimensional Security Accords were ratified that same year.
Post-Incursion
After the First Incursion, both IRTO and private bridge research was placed on hold for a number of years until a regulatory framework was developed to ensure its safety and oversight. There was a resurgence in research in full force in the mid-2100s after the construction of new Gen 3 IRTO bridge laboratories with full security safeguards.
Departments
Scientific Forum
The Forum is a panel of elected scientific representatives that governs IRTO, with usually at least one member from each signatory country. The Forum is responsible for policymaking, and decisions on scientific oversight. Unlike the EAB, private corporations are not allowed to elect representatives to the Forum.
Ethics Board
The Ethics Board is an ethics oversight department that acts as IRTO’s own in-house scientific ethics balances, in addition to those enforced by Raven. In many occasions, the Ethics Board actually goes above and beyond what Raven demands.
Experiment Assessment Board
The Experiment Assessment Board (EAB) is responsible for determining the scientific projects that should receive IRTO funding or subsidies, and if so, in what priority. EAB decisions are made based on numerous factors, including risk factors, the size of the investment, the potential return, and the length of the commitment. IRTO sponsors, such as member states and private corporations, also have a stake in EAB decisions and are able to sit on the board.