As the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) enters its build-up phase, the groundwork laid by the GÉANT community through eduGAIN and MyAccessID is proving instrumental in shaping a trusted and interoperable identity landscape for research and innovation across Europe.
The EOSC Federation Handbook confirms what has long been recognised within the community: federated access is not optional, it is foundational.
But this is not only about access. It is about interoperability at scale, and long-term sustainability. Over 6,000 Identity Providers and more than 27 million users are already part of eduGAIN, enabling EOSC to tap into an existing global trust fabric without reinventing the wheel. Institutions benefit from reduced costs and streamlined operations, while researchers gain frictionless, secure access to services across the Federation.
Complementing eduGAIN, MyAccessID introduces a powerful layer of identity harmonisation and trust. Developed in line with AARC principles and already powering the EOSC EU Node and the access to EuroHPC, MyAccessID serves as the Identity and Trust Layer across the EOSC Federation. It allows for consistent, standards-based access to identities and attributes across multiple EOSC Nodes, and enables use cases ranging from single sign-on to complex cross-node workflows.
The newly released EOSC AAI Architecture 2025 outlines the principles and decisions guiding this first phase of implementation:
- A focus on simplicity and minimalism in architecture.
- Adoption of OpenID Connect and OAuth2 as core protocols.
- A commitment to technological readiness and deployability.
As the EOSC Federation scales, these foundations will enable the transition to a dynamic, full-mesh federation, supporting emerging standards such as OpenID Federation and enhancing the EOSC’s ability to serve complex, cross-border scientific collaborations.
The EOSC AAI Working Group, under the Technical and Semantic Interoperability Task Force, is steering the implementation with broad community participation. The first results are expected at the EOSC Symposium 2025 in Brussels, with the Architecture set for iterative updates based on the experience of early adopters.
The acknowledgement of MyAccessID as the Federation’s AAI infrastructure is a testament to the GÉANT community’s two decades of leadership in federated identity and research trust frameworks. By operationalising these mature, community-driven components, EOSC is not only building on proven infrastructure but also reinforcing Europe’s commitment to openness, collaboration, and digital sovereignty in research.
For more information, read the full EOSC Federation Handbook and the EOSC AAI Architecture 2025. Both documents are expected to evolve as the EOSC Federation expands.
For a history of federated identity management at GÉANT and in the GÉANT community, check out our article on 20 years of Federated Identity Management: where are we now and how did we get here?
