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- TERENA (Trans European Research and Education Networking Association), the leading partner;
- LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries);
- UvA (Universiteit van Amsterdam hereafter called UvA);
- DEENK (University and National Library of Debrecen)
has been was awarded a contract by the European Commission to carry out a study into AAA (authentication, authorisation and accounting) platforms and services for scientific data/information resources. The consortium will work has worked together with the following experts as indicated in the bid that was submitted and accepted by the European Commission:
- Diego Lopez (Telefonica I+D)
- Klaas Wierenga (Cisco Systems)
- Torbjörn Wiberg (Umeå University)
- Nicole Harris (JISC Advance)
- Andrew Cormack (Janet)
- David Groep (NiKef)
- Mikael Linden (CSC)
This study will run from Dec 2011 until August was concluded in September 2012.
Background for the AAA Study
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A bid in responce to the calls for tender was submitted in the summer 2011 and awarded to the Consortium in December 2011.
Aim of the AAA Study
The goal of this the study is was to provide recommendations for the development and deployment of a Scientific Data e-Infrastructure (SDI) that would enable access to heterogeneous data for researchers and citizens alike. The SDI should be delivered integrating as much as possible existing AAA platforms (such as those used by the research and education community, or those used by the eScience community). The study will therefore will identify use-cases for the SDI; it will assess existing AAA-infrastructures as well as the ability for the existing AAA-infrastructures to address these use-cases; the study will also examine the gaps in providing the necessary infrastructure to support the use-cases and explore the work that is being done in the existing AAA-infrastructures to address those needsevaluate the feasibility of delivering an integrated Authentication and Authorisation (and possibly accounting) Infrastructure, AAI, to help the emergence of a robust platform (Scientific Data Infrastructure) for access to and preservation of scientific information.
The study was organised in two parts:
- Collection use-cases to derive the AAI requirements;
- Evaluation of existing AA Infrastructures as well as their gap analisys to identify their strenght and their challanges. The legal aspects of the different AAIs was also assessed.
The results of the study in the forms of technical and policy recommendations will be used in developing to inform a strategy, in particular, for European strategy to deliver an integrated AAI for Scientific Data Infrastructures in Europe that will support science by providing access to quality services for researchers, funding agencies and for the public at large.
The targeted actors in the study are the research and education communities, information service providers (data centres, libraries) and e-Infrastructure/technology providers.
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