What question did this study set out to answer?

To establish a federated Identity and Access Management system to enhance access to digital resources for researchers.

July 10, 2026Open Access

Base4NFDI Proposal IAM4NFDI Initialisation Phase

SASander ApweilerForschungszentrum Jülich MBMatthias BonnKarlsruhe Institute of Technology PGPeter GietzPE International (Germany)

Key Points

To establish a federated Identity and Access Management system to enhance access to digital resources for researchers.
Establish a decentralized, federated IAM framework through a state-of-the-art Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI).
Connect the NFDI AAI with the national identity federation DFN-AAI.
Utilize eduGAIN for international interoperability across research institutions.
The NFDI AAI will allow users from approximately 400 German institutions and 4,800 global organizations to access resources.
Improved interoperability facilitates easier access and collaboration across different research domains.
The implementation of a federated IAM system addresses the critical need for unified access to digital resources.

Abstract

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is concerned with the processes, policies and technologies for managing digital identities and their access rights to specific resources. A central goal within NFDI is to enable unified access to data, software, and compute resources, as well as sovereign data exchange and collaborative work. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to connect and expand existing and emerging IAM systems in a way that researchers from different domains and institutions are able to access digital resources existing within NFDI as easily as possible, including access to and exchange with external infrastructures and resources. Interoperability is therefore a central requirement. In order to achieve this, a decentralised, federated Identity and Access Management is required. The technical and organisational framework for a federated IAM is a so-called Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI). The task of the Basic Service IAM is to establish and provide a state-of-the-art AAI, that fosters cross-consortial and international collaboration. This NFDI AAI will be connected to the national identity federation DFN-AAI. Through its participation in the international interfederation eduGAIN, the DFN-AAI facilitates international, cross-federation, and cross-community usage scenarios. This way, users from approx. 400 German research and higher education institutions plus approx. 4800 home organisations worldwide will be able to access services and resources provided by the NFDI AAI.

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