How do we keep control of our digital identity?

Identity & access management, or IAM for short, is an area of expertise that is high on the agenda within education and research. More and more applications and platforms are available to us, and most of them we cannot use without our digital identity.

The digitisation of education and research brings convenience. We can collaborate online much more easily, processes are automated and that saves manual work, time and mistakes. But it also means that we buy more products and also from different suppliers who ask for personal data.

Our digital identity plays a major role in all these developments. In what way does our digital identity take shape? Which data in it belongs to you? And, how do you make sure they remain yours? SURF provides services that ensure that our users remain in control of these data themselves. In this way, suppliers comply with the public values we have agreed on together.

Proud of what we achieve together

SURF works on innovations, such as a self-sovereign identity wallet, on the one hand, and builds and maintains existing services, such as eduID, an umbrella digital student identity independent of an institution, on the other.

SURFconext is also SURF's key solution. It arranges for researchers, students and staff to securely access all kinds of digital products from many different suppliers. SURFconext has been embraced by the entire sector and other sectors are also watching with great interest how we organise this in education and research. An additional advantage for the user is that you can access almost everything with a single login.

In this video, you can see what we as a sector have already achieved together and what we think is important, whether you are a student or an IT director. Because all of us are in favour of maintaining the autonomy of education and research. How do we stay in control, now and in the future?