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Why should Research Communities invest in

AARC

Compliance?

The AARC Blueprint Architecture (BPA) provides a proven, interoperable framework for Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) that supports scalable, secure, and sustainable access to research services. Early investment in a common, AARC-compliant AAI significantly reduces long-term costs, operational complexity, and disruption, compared to retrofitting identity solutions once communities are already established.

Key Benefits of the AARC BPA

• For Researchers:
  Simplified access through single institutional credentials, eliminating multiple accounts and reducing authentication friction so researchers can focus on research.

• For Research Communities:
  Community-managed membership and access policies independent of institutional boundaries, supporting both small projects and large international infrastructures.

• For Service Providers:
  Reduced integration effort via a proxy-based model that hides federation complexity and enables advanced access control without bespoke authorisation logic.

• For Infrastructure Operators:
  A scalable, multi-tenant AAI model that supports multiple communities efficiently while sharing operational costs and maintaining appropriate isolation.

• For Security and Risk Management:
  Centralised policy enforcement, logging, audit-ability, and incident response; support for assurance frameworks; cryptographically secured trust relationships; and defence-in-depth security.

• For Funders:
  Avoids duplicated effort by scarce identity experts, enables scalable policy and technology standards, and supports European and global collaboration.

• For the Research Ecosystem:
  Enables true interoperability across research infrastructures (e.g. EOSC), breaking down silos and supporting cross-infrastructure access. The architecture is future-proofed to integrate emerging identity technologies such as European Digital Identity Wallets.

Overall, AARC BPA is a mature, widely adopted solution that underpins sustainable, interoperable identity management for modern, international research collaboration.

Why and How Funding Agencies Should Support Common AAI Solutions

The AARC Community recommends continued and strengthened support for shared AAI solutions (hosted services or open-source software) because they deliver system-wide benefits:

• More research, less overhead:
  Seamless AAI reduces time spent managing accounts and access.

• Improved security and accountability:
  Centralised access control and logging simplify incident detection and response.

• Efficiency and reuse:
  Shared solutions prevent duplication and accelerate project setup.

• Better use of expertise:
  Service providers focus on research services, while AAI specialists improve shared identity infrastructure—especially critical for cross-domain resource sharing.

• Policy agility:
  Common AAIs provide a central point for enforcing and communicating evolving funding and compliance policies.

• Lower costs and sustainability:
  Shared investment reduces duplication and ensures long-term viability.

• Alignment with public values:
  Community-governed AAIs reduce reliance on commercial providers and preserve academic control and resilience.

• Stronger global collaboration:
  Trusted, cross-border access mechanisms amplify the impact of funded infrastructures across the global research ecosystem.

Recommendation

Funding agencies should not only fund shared AAI solutions but also require early involvement of AAI operators in grant proposals, ensuring best practices are followed and avoiding delays or suboptimal implementations due to late or unfunded AAI integration.