Certification
Foundation certification is an independent assessment process. Guardians evaluate a system against the HEART Standard and issue HVC credentials when the measured governance quality meets the required threshold.
How certification works
- A system is assessed using the Foundation’s public evidence and scoring model.
- A Guardian reviews the relevant behavior, evidence trail, and domain context.
- The BGF scoring framework determines whether the system meets the threshold for certification.
- If it qualifies, the Foundation can issue an HVC credential for the relevant Division.
Certification outputs
- HVC Gold for the highest governance tier.
- HVC Silver for systems that meet the next threshold.
- HVC Bronze for systems that qualify at the minimum certification level.
Why certification matters
Certification turns governance into something third parties can inspect. That matters for procurement, insurance, compliance, and public trust because it gives the decision-maker a verifiable basis instead of a vendor assertion.