Australian Access Federation Annual Report 2024

Established in June 2009, the Australian Access Federation (AAF) has for the last 15 years been transforming Australia's research, teaching and learning communities. We have done this by delivering innovative trust and identity services crucial to connecting and protecting the research and higher education sector.

The national identity Federation that the AAF operates, enabled over 10.6 million authentications in 2024. As one of the most effective shared services in the sector, the AAF lowers the effort and costs associated with federated identity management in each individual subscriber organisation. It removes inter-organisational barriers to collaborating, enabling students, educators and researchers to quickly and easily connect with online resources. The AAF is part of a global network of over 78 federations, collectively delivering an information ecosystem of infrastructure and services to advance research, education and innovation not just in Australia but on a global scale.

The AAF now connects over 1,100 national and international services that support teaching, learning, research and collaboration. We continually invest in the technological capability of the Federation and our cloud hosted platform, RapidIdP, now connects more than 82% of our subscribers.

Our trust and identity solutions enable greater advances in research and impact by providing streamlined and secure access to teaching and learning resources. Cyber security is integral to AAF's services – which are secure by design – and we have continued to invest in enhancing the security and robustness of our tools and services. AAF is core member of the Australian Higher Education Cyber Security Service (AHECS) and we continue to work closely with many peak groups to enhance the cyber security defences of the sector.

In 2024, we laid the groundwork for a national research system which is increasingly connected, where seamless trust and identity services opens access to research knowledge, and where connectivity helps Australian researchers and users of research infrastructure – from health services to citizen scientists – to build the future.

Looking forward, the NDRI Strategy Investment Plan outcomes, Australian Government's current strategic review of Australia's R&D system and the 2026 National Infrastructure Roadmap planning are crucial opportunities to inform and support the future needs of the nation.

We would like to thank all our members and partners across the research and higher education sector for a fabulous 15 years.

The summary of achievements for 2024 are reflected in the report, which is now available to view.