First published by Australian Research Data Commons
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) is providing further $900k investment to expand the capacity of the Australian Access Federation’s (AAF) managed service Rapid Identity Provider (Rapid IdP).
Located 360 km northeast of Geraldton, Western Australia, lies the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), one of Australia’s leading radio telescopes. While situated in Australia, a team of partners from Canada, India, Japan, China, New Zealand and the United States are behind the design and ongoing maintenance of the MWA. The vast, radio-silent landscape of Australia’s outback offers ideal conditions to house this internationally significant equipment. Enabling astronomers from around the world to explore the universe, the MWA is a critical part of Australia’s astrophysical research infrastructure.
The Australian Access Federation has been working with APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) to grow Identity Management federations in the Asia Pacific (APAC) Region. With 43 organisations currently participating in APAN, The AAF is providing thought leadership and support for identity federations in the APAC region. Terry Smith the AAF’s Technical Support and Engagement Manager currently chairs the APAN Identity Access Management working group, and is supported by his Co-Chairs, Toby Chan represents the Hong Kong Access Federation and William Wan is representing CARSI (CERNET (China Education and Research Network) Authentication and Resource Sharing Infrastructure). Since 2016 the AAF has been instrumental in assisting Hong Kong and Singapore to set up their national access federations and have been sharing knowledge and skills with the other APAN participants.
Rapid Identity Provider (IdP) is the Australian Access Federation’s (AAF) new cloud hosted service. It provides a fast, easy option to connect your organisation to hundreds of research and education services already connected to the AAF. You configure your organisations AAF connection through the web interface and we take care of the rest.
In January, the ORCID Consortium run by the Australian Access Federation (AAF) was awarded the ORCID Consortia award for inspired engagement and outstanding community building. Since 2016, the AAF and governance groups have been working tirelessly to engage stakeholders across all research sectors and build awareness of ORCID nationally. With only two staff members, the AAF successfully manages a consortium of 40 organisations.
