IT Center Blog

Stefan Drees (MKW), Aylin Gündogan (RWTH), Matthias Müller (RWTH)
Source: Own illustration

As research, teaching, and administration become increasingly digital, the importance of secure, cross-institutional identity management continues to grow. Researchers, students, and staff expect seamless and secure access to digital services—regardless of the university or research institution they belong to. Federated identity management provides the foundation for making this possible.

To sustainably support higher education institutions across North Rhine-Westphalia and to coordinate the further development of shared identity infrastructures, the IDM.nrw Office has been established.

The office was officially inaugurated during a launch event held at the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University on 20 May 2026. Representatives from universities across North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the DFN Association, and numerous partners from the research and higher education community joined the event to mark this important milestone.

Looking Ahead

Following the welcome addresses by representatives of the IT Center and the Ministry, the newly established IDM.nrw Office introduced its mission, objectives, and future responsibilities. The presentation highlighted how the office builds on the successful outcomes of the previous project phase while ensuring their long-term continuation through a sustainable operational framework.

Throughout the day, experts from various institutions presented current developments in federated identity management. The program covered a wide range of topics, including cloud and sourcing strategies, the evolution of academic authentication and authorization infrastructures, federated services for sciebo, HPC.nrw, the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), and the DFN’s edu-ID initiative.

The presentations clearly demonstrated that federated identities have become a key enabler for digital collaboration across universities, research institutions, and infrastructure providers. At the same time, they highlighted the important role the IDM.nrw Office will play as a coordinating and connecting institution within this ecosystem.

Source: Own illustration

Exchange and Networking

In addition to the technical presentations, the event offered numerous opportunities for professional exchange and networking. During the breaks and at the poster session, participants deepened existing collaborations, established new connections, and discussed ideas for future joint initiatives.

The lively discussions throughout the day once again demonstrated that advancing federated identity management is a collaborative effort that depends on close cooperation between higher education institutions, infrastructure providers, and partner organizations. The strong interest shown during the event reflects a shared commitment to further developing sustainable digital infrastructures for research and higher education in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Source: Own illustration

Thank You!

We would like to sincerely thank all speakers and participants for their valuable contributions, inspiring discussions, and for making the launch of the IDM.nrw Office such a successful event.

We look forward to working together with our partners to shape the future of federated identity management in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Responsible for the content of this article is Aylin Gündogan.

Kategorie: Events, Anniversarys & Success, Support, Services & Updates
Schlagworte: Identitätsmanagement, IDM, IDM.nrw
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