Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) provides a new paradigm in trust and identity on how users can engage with, and have control over their personal data. It may also provide new models for institutions and services to engage with users in the context of issuing and receiving (researcher) identity and in dealing with guest or external identities. This will have an impact on how research communities and their services can handle authentication and authorization.

SSI awareness in Europe recently spiked as the revised EU eIDAS legislation puts SSI-based technology at the forefront of the minds of decision-makers and technologists alike. With large-scale pilots with wallet technology being planned and through the technology-driven European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) activity, the EU aims to roll out a digital wallet for every European by 2024.

To further explore these questions, an AARC BPA SSI expert working group (Group) will be formed to further explore, investigate and discuss such questions.

#What is the business case for the Activity? Who would be beneficiaries of the results of the Activity and what would potential business case look like if applicable? - delete this line after using the template#

<Enter here>For the European academic trust and identity community, these developments present both challenges: how does this SSI ecosystem relate to Federated Identity and the established practices developed? There may also be opportunities: does this perhaps help us save cost when we enrol researchers, or external identities in our collaborations, can we perhaps build trust in a new way, can we now finally get rid of proxies?

#Are there risks that influence either the implementation of the activity or its outcomes? - delete this line after using the template#

<Enter here>It it unclear how much interest there is to find a SSI based solution at this point in time.

#How do data protection and privacy impact the Activity? Think about e.g. handling of personal data of users - delete this line after using the template#

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The activity does not affect any privacy

#Please describe here the set of criteria that the product must meet in order to be considered finished. - delete this line after using the template#

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The activity will launch a series of public meetings with community experts to discuss this topic. Afterwards a report will be created and published.

#How are the results of the Activity intended to be used? If this requires further engagement, can you describe how you intent to sustain it? - delete this line after using the template#

<Enter here>The goal of this activity is to investigate the topic and create a report about the state of play. It can be the trigger for further investigations in GN5-1 or to establish a community group.

After a series of meetings with an Expert group to discuss SSI and the AARC BPA, a Report on Decentralised identity for GÉANT, NRENs and institutions was created and published.