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Sally Chambers (DARIAH), Michael Kurzmeier (DARIAH), Hannah Short (CERN), David Kelsey (STFC-RAL), David Groep (Nikhef), Liam Atherton (STFC-RAL), Maarten Kremers (SURF), Licia Florio (Nordunet), Christos Kanellopoulos (GEANT)

FIM4R, Internet2 TechEx Denver

Authentication and Authorisation for Research and Collaboration

AARC Update

December 2025

AARC Policy and Compendium Work Packages

Authentication and Authorisation for Research and Collaboration

https://aarc-community.org

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What is the AARC Project?

  • Funded by the European Commission to produce technical and policy guidelines and pilot implementations for interoperable Research AAIs
  • 3rd iteration will end in February 2026
  • Mostly European participants but much excellent collaboration with global partners!

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https://aarc-community.org

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What’s coming from the AARC Project?

Several useful (we hope!) outputs will become available in the coming months. In particular:

  • Policy Development Kit (version 2)
  • AARC Compendium of Best Practices and Recommendations

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https://aarc-community.org

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Policy Development Kit

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https://aarc-community.org

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Policy Development Kit version 2

  • We listened to feedback (particular thanks to AAF) and have tried to simplify as much as possible
  • 8 key steps to follow
  • 6 documents to adopt for your Research Collaboration AAI to…
    • Ease interoperability
    • Support you to make policy declarations for the AAI and all connect services
  • More information available on the extended set of policies that may be relevant for your use case

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https://aarc-community.org

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8 Steps for getting started with Policy

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https://wiki.geant.org/spaces/AARC/pages/1214906481/AARC+PDK+v2

https://aarc-community.org

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6 key policy documents

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Document

AARC Template

Example (where no template is recommended)

Attribute Authority Operational Security Policy

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Acceptable Use Policy

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Incident response procedure

 

Membership management

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Privacy Policy

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Security Operational Baseline

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https://aarc-community.org

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Compendium

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https://aarc-community.org

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AARC Compendium

Aim: To produce a compendium of AARC best practices and deliver recommendations for a common long-term strategy for AAI services in pan-European Research Infrastructures in Europe

  • Builds on Research Infrastructure Use Cases based on stakeholder interviews
  • Takes into account the Changing landscape, e.g. establishment of the EOSC Federation and its candidate Nodes

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https://aarc-community.org

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AARC Compendium

What will it be?

  • A living Wiki
  • Community input welcome on an ongoing basis

Who is it for?

  • Research Community Management
  • AAI Implementers and Operators
  • Funding Agencies

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What does it contain?

  • Value proposition for Research AAIs
  • Advice on how to implement your AAI (including buy vs build)
  • Clarity on guidelines required for AARC compliance and interoperability
  • Information on community software and solutions
  • Use cases

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https://aarc-community.org

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Key messages

  • There is benefit to investing in common AAI solutions, both for funding agencies and research collaborations themselves
  • AAI is complex and our community generally recommends using a hosted/managed solution rather than starting from scratch. This will aid future interoperability as the landscape is highly dynamic.
  • A “consulting” service where Research Collaborations can seek advice would be highly useful

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Draft available for comments at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1buSq_L_rAW_C8ZZuTKQyjh7mldCduhOBRsXMMvPBRMg/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.tj8rhc1rmy88

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https://aarc-community.org

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Practical application: EOSC

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https://aarc-community.org

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AARC outputs in practice

  • European Open Science Cloud https://eosc.eu/
  • AAI Task Force is making use of the AARC technical and policy guidelines to provide a single sign on experience across multiple “Nodes”
    • Nodes can be national or by research domain
    • https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15388270
  • Nodes should also trust each other – perfect match for Open ID Federation

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EOSC login

Mutual trust between EOSC Node AAIs

https://aarc-community.org

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hannah.short@cern.ch

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Thank you

Any Questions?

© members of the AARC Community and the AARC TREE consortium.

The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Union and other sources.

https://aarc-community.org

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. Grant Agreement No. 101131237 (AARC TREE).

Co-funded by �the European Union

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Useful links

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https://aarc-community.org