Our History

In 2009, the Australian higher education landscape was severely fragmented. Student admissions were at a record high as study options broadened and university IT systems struggled to keep up with the demand. As a result, universities developed systems to provide access to digital services and staff continued to spend unnecessary time entering data manually over and over again.

Individually, universities attempted to persevere with these manual processes and identity management was proving to be complicated and ineffective. Creating and distributing an individuals credentials was a lengthy process and didn’t account for sessional or invited academic roles. This whole process reflected poorly on university Identity Management systems. Former QUT Information Technology Service Director and CAUDIT President at the time, Neil Thelander stated that the increase of systems made things “harder and harder as the number of systems grew.”

The Council of Australasian University IT Directors (CAUDIT) agreed that a centralised access Federation would be a national solution to these problems. The Australian Access Federation (AAF) would authorise staff, students and researchers around Australia, enabling them to access a wide range of digital services from many organisations. With numerous researchers already collaborating in universities this supported the needs of the CSIRO, Australia’s largest research organisation.

Throughout our history we have had regular investment by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) commencing in 2012 when we were provided initial funding to connect national research infrastructure.

In 2016 the AAF was included in the Draft NCRIS Roadmap and in that same year they funded the OIDC Project, which was released in 2018. This was followed in 2019, by NCRIS funding to advance AAF’s Rapid Identity Provider (Rapid IdP) a hosted cloud solution, that providies a fast and easy way to connect to the AAF.

In 2021 the AAF was mentioned in the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap, with the need to explore a systemwide approach to trust and identity for national research infrastructure.

This was followed in 2023, when the AAF was officially recognised as a national capability in trust and identity.

Our milestones

2009

  • Strategic Initiative of CAUDIT (Member investment + seed funding)​
  • Established the basis of the trust framework and technology​
  • Inc. association​
  • 4 Project staff

2010

  • Subscription model launched​
  • Engagement with international federations​
  • Federation Registry tool launched

2011

  • Reporting tools launched​
  • Annual Compliance program commenced​
  • First subscriber survey distributed​
  • 100% of Australian universities joined the Federation​
  • Helped establish the New Zealand Federation​

2012

  • Received NCRIS funding to connect national research infrastructure​
  • Expanded product offerings​
  • Professional services offered​
  • Federation monitoring launched​
  • Federation Registry V2 launched​​

2013

  • Developed & released​
  • Attribute Validator​
  • Virtual Home​
  • Tools & Services dashboard​
  • AAF Assurance​
  • Rapid Connect
    ​
  • Signed eduGAIN declaration​
  • Support Desk framework piloted

2014

  • Launched AAF Virtual Home Open Source​
  • ECP enabled​
  • Chair APAN Fed Taskforce​
  • NCRIS showcase at Parliament​
  • Boost program​
  • Expanded Professional Services​

2015

  • Assisted Singapore Federation establishment​
  • Leader in APAC region​
  • Join REFEDS Steering Committee

2016

  • ORCID Consortium Lead for Australia​
  • Draft NCRIS Roadmap ​
  • Tender for Hong Kong Federation​
  • NCRIS funded OIDC Project​
  • Data Lifecycle Framework Project (RAID)​

2017

  • Connected to eduGAIN​
  • eduGAIN released as a service​
  • Included in NCRIS Roadmap​
  • Rapid IdP Early Adopter program launched​
  • 70,000 researchers in Australia with an ORCID​​

2018

  • Rapid IdP released​
  • ORCID national forum​
  • Awarded International Leader by ORCID​
  • OIDC released​
  • Murchison Widefield Array connected to eduGAIN​
  • VerifID launched

2019

  • Became Ltd Company​
  • Board of Directors​
  • Received NCRIS funding to advance Rapid IdP​
  • 13 IdPs in eduGAIN​
  • 90,000 researchers with an ORCID​
  • Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre HPC project

2020

  • Enabled access to support COVID research​
  • Enabled online Learning & Teaching​
  • ORCID Member Portal pilot​
  • Developed National Trust and Identity Strategy for national research infrastructure​
  • Lead iFIRE Project (EU funded)​
  • BioCommons partnership established​
  • Expanded VerifID to UK

2021

  • Reporting tools launched​
  • Annual Compliance program commenced​
  • First subscriber survey distributed​
  • 100% of Australian universities joined the Federation​
  • Helped establish the New Zealand Federation​

2022

  • Recognised in the NCRIS Roadmap​
  • NCRIS Pathfinder Project funding granted​
  • Chaired APAN Taskforce, eduGAIN Steer Co​
  • PIDS Cost Benefit Report released​
  • BioCommons, CADRE, LDaCA projects commenced​
  • 70% of univerisities connected to​
    Rapid IdP​

2023

  • Recognised as an NCRIS Capability​
  • National PIDs Strategy Taskforce​​
  • NIF, ACCESS-NRI and Microscopy Australia Projects commenced

2024

  • NDRI Strategy Consultation launched​
  • ARDC and NCI Projects commenced
  • National PIDS Strategy Taskforce and Working Groups