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| Nomination | Organisation | Nominated by | Candidate Statement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pål Axelsson | Sunet/SWAMID | Self nominated | I’m currently and member of eduGAIN Steering Committee and I would like to continue with the appointment for another term. I’ve worked with Identity and Access Management since the 90s, first at one of the big universities in Sweden and then later with establishment, development, and use of the Swedish academic federation Swamid. I’m responsible for daily operations and development of the federation's policy framework. In order for a federation to be interoperable with other academic federations around the world, I also actively participate in the joint standardization work within the eduGAIN and REFEDS. When I meet others, I always learns and share. There is no absolute truth but there is a common ground on where we can help each other. |
| Francisca Martin-Vergara | UMA | Self nominated | After two years on the eduGAIN Steering Committee, I remain fully committed to supporting a stronger, more interoperable and trustworthy academic identity ecosystem. During this period, I have tried to contribute with a practical and collaborative approach, drawing on my experience in trust, identity and cross-institutional coordination at the University of Malaga and in European university alliances. These two years have reinforced my belief in eduGAIN’s strategic importance and in the need for clear guidance, consistent quality, and a forward-looking approach to emerging standards. I would like to continue contributing to this effort, helping ensure that eduGAIN remains reliable, inclusive, and aligned with the evolving needs of the global research and education community. Thank you for considering my renewed candidacy. |
| Seydou Konsimbo | FASOREN / Burkina Faso Identity Federation | Self nominated | I participate full-time in the development of digital infrastructure in Burkina. I work at Joseph KI-ZERBO University and in various activities of the ministry in charge of higher education and research in my country. I also operate as a sys admin within FASOREN and applying for this committee within EduGain is a challenge for me. This role will allow us to propel the integration and development of our federation. |
| Bas Zoetekouw | SURF / SURFconext | Self nominated | I have been on the steering committee for one year, and I am eager to continue for another term. There are big challenges ahead for eduGAIN: SAML is getting obsolete as a technology and the IAM landscape is dominated more and more by big corporations that lack the public values the eduGAIN community shares. I have been involved with the Dutch federation SURFconext for the past 15 years in different functions. Since 2024, I have been responsible for its operations and serve as the deputy eduGAIN delegate for SURF. Before that, I have focused on establishing the SURF Research Access Management service, which enables easy delegated identity management for research collaborations. In connection with this work, I contribute to the AEGIS group and the AARC3 project. These experiences have shown me how powerful eduGAIN can be in enabling international collaborations, as well as its pitfalls. I believe an infrastructure like eduGAIN is essential for facilitating international collaboration, but we must ensure it remains relevant in today's world. We need to be quicker to implement new technical standards such as OpenID Federation and make sure that it will be easy to adopt, both for federation operators as for services and identity providers. |
| Ann West | Internet2 / InCommon | Kevin Morooney (Internet2) | Ann held the position of Associate Vice President for Trust & Identity at Internet2 for over ten years. She architected InCommon’s growth domestically and position internationally over this time frame. |
2024 Elections
| Nomination | Organisation | Nominated by | Candidate Statement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muhammad Farhan Sjaugi | SIFULAN Malaysian Access Federation | Self nominated | As co-founder of SIFULAN Malaysian Access Federation and have been participating in many Identity Federation activities/projects particularly in the Asia-Pacific region for the past 10 years, I am passionate about helping economies/states/countries to develop their identity federation infrastructure, building their technical capacity, and eventually joining the eduGAIN. If re-elected to the Steering Committee, within my capacity, I will help to bring the aspiration from the developing federation to be at par with the developed federation and helping to achieve eduGAIN's vision and mission. |
| Dalia Abraham | Australian Access Federation | Self nominated | For the past decade, I have been working with the Australian Access Federation and supporting various federation activities by providing technical assistance to both national and international research communities and the higher education sector. Through my work, I have gained experience in trust and identity management ensuring the secure and seamless exchange of data across complex, multi-stakeholder environments. I believe that my expertise and experience in the Trust and Identity domain can provide a valuable contribution to the further growth of the eduGAIN community. |
| Bas Zoetekouw | SURFconext | Self nominated | I have been involved with the Dutch federation SURFconext for the past 15 years in different functions. Since this summer, I have been responsible for its operations and serve as the deputy eduGAIN delegate for SURF. Before that, I have focused on establishing the SURF Research Access Management service, which allows for easy and effective delegated identity management for research collaborations. In connection with this work, I contribute to the AEGIS group and the AARC3 project. These experiences have shown me how powerful eduGAIN can be in enabling international collaborations, as well as its pitfalls. I believe an infrastructure like eduGAIN is essential for facilitating international collaboration, but we must ensure it remains relevant. It seems eduGAIN has hardly evolved in the past 15 years, while the identity and access management landscape has changed dramatically. Major players like Google and Microsoft now dominate this space; they offer rich functionality beyond what we can realistically match. Additionally, the world has shifted towards OIDC, whereas SAML has in essence become a legacy standard. Without significant evolution, I feel that there is a real risk that eduGAIN and SAML federations will become obsolete within the next decade. Therefore, we need to adapt in the next couple of years if we want to preserve the open values eduGAIN represents. I believe such change is achievable, but we must clearly define our added value, and should make sure that eduGAIN is easy to implement for service providers and intuitive for end users. Connecting services and using them must be seamless—it should Just Work. |
| Jonathan Eagan | CANARIE (Canadian Access Federation) | Self nominated | As Program Manager for Identity and Access Management at CANARIE, I've been instrumental in shaping the Canadian Access Federation's strategic vision. I'm deeply committed to eduGAIN, which already fosters significant collaboration among academic and research institutions. However, I believe we can further enhance eduGAIN's capabilities. If re-elected to the Steering Committee, I will advocate for implementing eduGAIN's vision: a more robust metadata infrastructure that ensures authentic, accurate, and interoperable exchanges. We can better empower the research and education community by extending our trust framework to enable secure, trustworthy, and purpose-driven international federated transactions. |
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