Advancing Trust & Identity for Higher Education and Research Roundtables 2026 – Recap

Throughout May 2026, the Australian Access Federation (AAF) brought together leaders from higher education, research, government and national research infrastructure organisations in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide for the Advancing Trust and Identity for Higher Education and Research Roundtables.

The Roundtables provided a forum for strategic discussion on how trust and identity are evolving as critical enablers of collaboration in an increasingly digital, data-intensive and AI-enabled environment. Participants explored the challenges and opportunities facing the sector as research becomes more interconnected, multidisciplinary and reliant on access to national and international digital infrastructure.

Reflecting on the Top Five Themes 2025 Discussion Paper, panellist and attendees highlighted the growing importance of persistent digital identities, trusted credentials, and seamless access to research systems, data, services and facilities regardless of organisational affiliation.

Speakers examined the opportunities presented by AI-powered services and autonomous agents, while also addressing the trust, accountability and security considerations that accompany these technologies. Conversations explored how identity systems will need to evolve to support not only people, but also machine-to-machine interactions, automated research workflows and AI agents acting on behalf of researchers and institutions.

Cybersecurity was another central topic, with participants reinforcing the need for robust and interoperable trust frameworks that can support secure collaboration at scale. Discussions highlighted the importance of balancing strong security controls with user experience, ensuring that researchers can securely access the resources they need without unnecessary complexity or barriers.

Featuring a range of guest speakers from across the sector, the discussion reinforced the importance of collective action, strong governance, and interoperable approaches to ensure the sector can continue to securely access and share research infrastructure, data and digital services at national and global scale.