What we do
Develop & deliver access solutions
Online services are crucial for research and education. Students, researchers, educators and institute staff increasingly rely on them for e-learning, teaching and conferencing, scientific collaboration, analysing and sharing data, accessing journals and libraries, etc.
Access to online resources has been controlled with a user name or password, but more recently, it more often depends upon a user's digital identity and whether they are entitled to use those resources.
Working together through through projects, community groups and events, GÉANT with National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), National Identity Federations and other partners develop and deliver access solutions and services based on trusted digital identities, reliable policies and secure technologies.
Work together as a community
Community collaboration lies at the heart of all GÉANT activities.
GÉANT staff and community members work with a range of groups across the wider research and education community to support the development, implementation and use of Trust and Identity technologies and concepts.
With the community of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) and other partners in Europe and beyond, GÉANT seeks to optimise and improve the experience of providing and accessing online resources that have become increasingly vital to research and education.
While many technical, policy and service developments occur at this level, actual delivery of identities and T&I services to users is typically achieved through individual research and education institutions with the support of their NRENs, who in turn are supported by GÉANT in a variety of ways.
Information about user identities, affiliations, level of rights to access resources based on their status (e.g. 'student') or role within an organisation or research community must be securely exchanged across borders - between organisations, services and countries - in order to unlock access to online resources. This is one reason why international collaboration between Trust and Identity experts is essential.
Such needs led to the creation of identity federations for research and education. Often closely related to their country's NREN, these teams have been a vital part of wider community and GÉANT efforts to address the differing needs of user communities and devise innovative solutions that help them to:
- get online easily while traveling for work or study;
- access a growing pool of online services;>
- participate in online education and international research collaboration;
- protect their privacy online.