Date of document: 13 February 2020

InAcademia Constitution

Document Revision History

1. Introduction

1.1 Overview

InAcademia is a service that offers third parties an easy, secure and privacy-preserving way to let a user validate their affiliation with an academic institution. It relies on the eduGAIN service to make full use of federated identities in Research and Education.

This document forms the constitution of the InAcademia service. It defines the service’s governance and the requirements Participating Federations and third-party organisations should meet to use either the InAcademia Community Edition or the InAcademia Commercial Edition to provide services to users in Research and Education. It also defines the qualification criteria for Merchants to use InAcademia. The document’s primary audience is Federation Operators.

1.2 Goal 

InAcademia enables Merchants that require a simple validation service to use federated identities in Research and Education, without having to join an Identity Federation. InAcademia is operated on behalf of Participating Federations who wish to enable such Merchants for the benefit of their constituency.

1.3 InAcademia Community and Commercial Editions

The InAcademia service is offered in two editions: Commercial and Community. 

The InAcademia Commercial Edition is aimed at Merchants that benefit commercially from engaging with the academic community, where such benefit might be described as enabling an organisation to improve its profitability or to become more efficient in its commercial (for-profit) activities. The definition of ‘commercial’ refers to the nature of the organisation itself, as opposed to the nature of the use case; that is, use cases where commercial organisations choose to offer discounts to students as 'loss leader' (without making a profit from that sale specifically) sales shall also be considered in the scope of the InAcademia Commercial Edition.

The InAcademia Community Edition is for not-for-profit Merchants that offer the academic community educational/academic services for education and research purposes free of charge, at discounted rates or to prove entitlement to a restricted service. 

The Eligibility Criteria for InAcademia Community Edition are set such that the Community edition does not impede the use of, nor compete with the Commercial edition of the InAcademia service. The two services are operated in parallel, leveraging the same development, operations and support capabilities, and both are governed by a single InAcademia Steering Committee . The distinction is made in order to recognise the value that the service offers to organisations that further R&E by allowing such organisations to register and use the service without paying a fee.

1.4 Relation to eduGAIN 

The InAcademia service is registered and accessible via eduGAIN, where it appears as a Service Provider. Offering InAcademia via eduGAIN also acts as an incentive for Institutions to join Identity Federations and be published to eduGAIN through them.

1.5 Target Audience 

The InAcademia service is intended for Merchants that only require a simple validation of a subset of user attributes as defined in the published technical documentation (see https://inacademia.org and the InAcademia Wiki), where the effort to implement and operate a Service Provider in an Identity Federation outweighs the benefit of the full Service Provider functionality. In this case, Merchants can connect directly to InAcademia, which reduces the operational cost for the Merchant, but leverages eduGAIN to validate its end users.

1.6 Glossary of Terms

InAcademia uses the following definitions.

2. Governance and Governing Bodies

2.1 InAcademia Steering Committee

The InAcademia Steering Committee (Steering Committee) is a consultative body that has an oversight role in the InAcademia service. The Steering Committee is consulted on matters concerning:

• Changes to the InAcademia Constitution, such as the definition of the Community Edition and its criteria for Merchants to be eligible to use it, etc.
• The suitability of Merchants requesting use of the InAcademia Commercial edition (where referred by the Service Owner), in which they represent the Community’s perspective.
• Cases where there is no Participating Federation to act as Registrar for the Merchant in question, as a registrar of last resort for the InAcademia Community edition.
• The introduction of R&E community-relevant changes to the content of the Agreement.
• Non-compliance (those in breach of the Agreement or the Eligibility Criteria) cases with Merchants registered to use Community edition.
• Any other matter regarding the InAcademia service that is being brought by the Service Operator.

The Steering Committee reserves the right to: 

• Raise concerns and ultimately refuse registration requests of Merchants that the Steering Committee reasonably believes do not meet the Eligibility Criteria. 
• Instruct the Service Operator to either invoice the relevant Merchant and/or disconnect merchant’s service if it is found to use the InAcademia Community Edition in breach of its definition and/or Eligibility Criteria.

The Steering Committee comprises representatives of the various functions required for making strategic and tactical decisions regarding the operation and future direction of the InAcademia service. Its members are:

• The InAcademia Service Owner
• A minimum of five nominated representatives of Participating Federations that actively support the outreach activities to their constituents, represent the best interests of R&E Identity Federations in the InAcademia service and have no conflict of interest. The number of representatives should be an odd number that enables effective steering and voting.
• An Executive representative of the Service Operator.  

If more candidates are nominated than there are positions available for representatives of Participating Federations in the Steering Committee, the Service Owner will initiate a voting process to select the required representatives. In this voting process, each Participating Federation will cast one vote. Steering Committee members that are representatives of Participating Federations are appointed for two consecutive years, after which the nomination and appointment process is again initiated by the Service Owner. 

In early life of the service, if there are less than five Participating Federations that are actively supporting the outreach activities within their constituencies, the members of the Steering Committee will be automatically nominated from the Participating Federations, and the ‘minimum of five members’ rule may be relaxed or a wider call for nominations may be made to Federations that are interested in becoming Participating Federations.

The Steering Committee Chair is selected by a Steering Committee vote from the current Steering Committee members and is appointed for a period of two years. The Steering Committee Chair is responsible for: 

• Determining the communication methods and frequency of the Steering Committee Meetings.
• Recording and providing the notes of the Steering Committee meetings, decisions made through rough consensus and voting.
• Managing the voting process.
• Calling for nominations of Steering Committee members, among Participating Federations.

The Steering Committee may also invite non-voting observers to its meetings and mailing list from time to time, such invitations will be extended to relevant roles, for example:

• Project Manager responsible or accountable for budgets and resourcing.
• Technical Product Manager responsible for the solution (in-life and future development).
• Business Development Manager responsible for engagement with commercial Merchants.
• Finance and/or legal Representative responsible for ensuring that the service is operated within financial and procurement regulatory and organisational constraints, providing advice concerning financial and procurement matters in relation to proposed service evolution. 

Decision is achieved either by rough consensus or by a vote. A voting process should only be started if rough consensus could not be reached within a reasonable period of time. In such cases, voting can be requested by at least two Steering Committee members, and will be called by the Steering Committee chair. Each Steering Committee member will have one vote. 

Voting may only be in favour or against the matter concerned. A positive vote will be recorded if a majority of Steering Committee members have voted in favour of the proposal. The vote must be carried out either at an official meeting of the Steering Committee or using an appropriate tool proposed by the Steering Committee Chair. Voting takes place over two weeks, but a decision may be reached early if the required majority is achieved before that time.

Whether the decision is reached by consensus during the course of a Steering Group meeting or by vote, the proposal and resulting decision will be recorded in the private InAcademia collaboration space.

2.2 Service Owner

The Service Owner is appointed by the Service Operator. The Service Owner is responsible for the delivery of the InAcademia service as a whole.

The remit of responsibility of the Service Owner, includes (but is not limited to): 

• Oversight of service development and operations.
• Updating the Steering Committee on prospective Merchants.
• Escalation of issues to the appropriate parties.
• Bringing relevant issues to the Steering Committee for consultation and decision.

2.3 Service Operator

The Service Operator is responsible for ensuring the operational activities are carried out effectively, which includes but is not limited to (delegating to capable organisations where appropriate):

• Development, deployment, operation and maintenance of the software supporting InAcademia .
• Announcing planned downtime, updates, cessation of operation, legal changes or practical changes without undue delay to Participating Federations and Merchants.
• Providing support to Merchants, Participating Federations and other interested or affected parties, on official InAcademia support channels.
• Performing the registration of Merchants (both administrative and technical) to the InAcademia Commercial Edition.
• Performing background checks to ensure that Merchants that use the InAcademia Commercial Edition are solvent and VAT registered.
• Resolving  non-compliance matters (concerning Merchants in breach of the Agreement or the Eligibility Criteria) relating to Merchants registered to use Commercial edition.
• Promoting and marketing the InAcademia service  in collaboration with Participating Federations.
• Business development concerning multinational Merchants.
• Invoicing Merchants registered with the InAcademia Commercial Edition and collecting payment.

2.4 Requirements for Participating Federations 

To ensure the successful operation of the InAcademia service, Participating Federations should:

• Promote the InAcademia service to prospective Merchants in their constituency, and collaborate with the Service Operator in business development, collecting feedback and carrying out support activities.
• Act as the Registrar for the InAcademia Community Edition for Merchants in their constituency.
• Promote the InAcademia service to their member institutions, and provide support for resolving issues with using the InAcademia service. 
• Collaborate with the Service Operator in testing and validating new features and changes to the InAcademia service.
• Announce planned downtime, updates, cessation of operation, legal changes or practical changes as soon as possible to the Service Operator (acknowledging that downtime and change impacts Merchants using InAcademia).
• Incident Response as required.

3. Eligibility Criteria 

Merchants eligible to use either InAcademia service editions must: 

• Serve the interest of end users affiliated with research and education.
• Sign the Agreement and comply with its terms.
• Register a point of contact for dealing with technical issues and incidents involving their services and other information required in the registration process.
• Operate a supported client implementation in accordance with the InAcademia interface specification.
• Cooperate in resolving incidents and report incidents in cases where these incidents could negatively affect the security, trustworthiness or reputation of the InAcademia service, Participating Federations or its members.

Additional criteria for Merchants that are eligible to use the InAcademia Community and Commercial Edition are set out in Sections 3.1 and 3.2 below. 

3.1 Eligibility Criteria for the InAcademia Community Edition 

To qualify for the InAcademia Community Edition, each Merchant must: 

• Operate primarily for the purpose of supporting research and scholarship interaction and activities.
• Be either a not-for-profit organisation, an institution or a registered charity.
• Be sponsored by a Participating Federation that commits to ongoing relationship management and technical support, unless the Steering Committee has agreed that the Service Operator will become the Registrar of last resort.

Merchants that charge a fee for using the service may be considered eligible to use the Community Edition, where they meet the Eligibility Criteria and the fee is levied in order to sustain the service.

3.2 Eligibility Criteria for the InAcademia Commercial Edition 

To qualify for the InAcademia Commercial Edition, each Merchant must:

• Be VAT registered (or registered VAT Exempt), and registered in an EU Member State where the VAT Reverse Charge applies, or 
• Be registered in a country in which GEANT Vereniging (Association) is registered for VAT.
• Provide their VAT registration (or exemption number) to the Service Operator prior to signing the contract.
• Demonstrate to the Service Operator that they are solvent and able to pay the fees (where fees are applicable).
• Be sponsored by relevant Participating Federations, who commit to ongoing relationship management and technical support.

The Service Operator reserves the right to assess all ‘applications’/registrations from Commercial Edition Merchants for VAT applicability prior to completing their registration, particularly when registering in a country where InAcademia does not already have Commercial Edition customers.

4. Registration  

Merchants can register for using either the InAcademia Community or Commercial Edition. The instructions for registration are available on the InAcademia website. The entities that are entitled to perform registrations are as follows:

• The Service Operator acts as Registrar for the Commercial Edition.
• Participating Federations act as Registrars for the Community Edition for Merchants that are primarily operating within their constituent community. 
• Where no Participating Federation could be identified as a Registrar, the Service Operator may act as the Registrar of last resort, and the Steering Committee will be consulted as to whether this is the most appropriate manner in which to manage the Merchant in question. 

The act of registration comprises two parts: administrative registration and technical integration.

4.1 Administrative Registration

The Registrar must follow the relevant Merchants’ registration process. Furthermore, 

• When the Registrar is the Service Operator and it receives a request to register (either from a Merchant or from a Participating Federation wishing to register a Merchant), the Service Owner will inform the Steering Committee and all other Participating Federations of the intention to register that Merchant.
• When the Registrar is a Participating Federation and it receives a request to register from a Merchant, the Participating Federation will inform the Service Owner who will inform the Steering Committee and all other Participating Federations of the intention to register that Merchant

The Registrar is required to confirm that the Merchant's Eligibility Criteria is fulfilled and to ask the Merchant to sign the Agreement, forwarding the signed Agreement to the Service Operator for counter-signature.

The Registrar agrees that Merchants shall not be allowed to commence use of InAcademia in their production systems until the Agreement has been signed by both the Merchant and the Service Operator and testing has been completed.

4.2 Technical Integration

During technical integration, Merchants must integrate their systems with the InAcademia service end points. The Registrar must support Merchants to integrate with InAcademia. Where resource constraints risk successful completion of integration, the Registrar reserves the right to recommend rescheduling the integration to an alternative date, working with the Service Owner and Merchant to agree a more realistic plan.

The Service Operator oversees technical validation of the Merchant’s implementation but reserves the right to delegate this to other Registrars where and when appropriate. 

4.3 Fees

The Community Edition can be used by qualifying organisations free of usage and registration charges.

The Commercial Edition will be chargeable on a fee-per-validation basis. The fees are cited in the Agreement, and will be invoiced and collected by the Service Operator. Income is intended to be used to sustain the service in the first instance.

The Agreement allows for a support and maintenance fee to be charged, however, support and maintenance will be included in the validation fee unless operational lessons learned demonstrate a need to charge a separate fee. The Steering Committee will be consulted in this event.

There will be periodic reviews of the InAcademia pricing strategy and any changes will be recommended by the Service Owner in collaboration with the Steering Committee. 

5. Merchants’ Termination Rights 

When a Merchant wishes to stop using InAcademia, its termination becomes effective 30 days’ after having given written notice to the Service Operator. Merchants are entitled to terminate the Agreement if the Service Operator (as the licensor of the Service), or by the actions of the Participating Federations, commits any irremediable material breach of its obligations (i.e. a significant service failure). Where notice of termination has been received, the Service Owner will forward the notice to the Steering Committee and Participating Federations and will follow the Merchant De-registration Process.

6. Removal of Support for InAcademia by Participating Federations

In the event that a Participating Federation no longer wishes to support InAcademia, the Service Operator has legal obligations to provide at least 30 days’ notice to the Merchants that pay to use the service. Therefore, a period of at least 45 days’ written notice must be provided by the Participating Federation to the Service Operator before support for InAcademia ceases in the relevant Federation.

7. Suspension or Disqualification of a Merchant

The Service Operator (as licensor of the InAcademia service) has the right to permanently terminate the service towards a Merchant: 

• Gving no less than 30 days’ notice to the Merchant.
• At the end of any Support and Maintenance Year (if relevant).
• If the Merchant is in material breach of the terms (i.e., if they use the service inappropriately or if they neglect to pay an invoice where fees are due).
• If the Merchant becomes insolvent.
• In circumstances of Force Majeure.

The Service Operator (as licensor of the InAcademia service) also has the right to temporarily suspend the service in the event that it reasonably believes that the Merchant’s actions risk reputational damage to the brand and/or to the Service Operator and/or to the Participating Federations.

Issues of non-compliance of a Merchant may be reported to the Service Owner or the Steering Committee by any of the Participating Federations. The Steering Committee may recommend that a Merchant is terminated or suspended from the InAcademia service.

The Service Owner will oversee the Merchant Termination Process.

8. General

8.1 Trademarks

InAcademia® and the InAcademia logo are trademarks of GÉANT Vereniging and may be used under license by Merchants and Participant Federations in conjunction with the InAcademia service. GÉANT Vereniging (Association) is responsible for managing and protecting the trademark.

8.2 Dispute Resolution

Resolution of disputes between the Participant Federations and the InAcademia service must be managed within the Steering Committee. If it is not possible to resolve the dispute, the Steering Committee must identify the most relevant body to escalate to.

Resolution of disputes between the Merchants and the InAcademia service are managed as defined in the Agreement.

8.3 Updating this Constitution

Proposed changes to this Constitution must be assessed for impact on the technical solution, the manner in which the service is delivered (processes and resources, for example), the cost to run the service, and the Agreement by the Steering Committee and the Service Operator.

If a change to the Agreement, back-end technical solution, merchant-facing solution, service delivery or costs to operate the service is required in order to comply with the Constitutional change, the relevant stakeholders must be consulted by the Steering Committee in advance of making the change to the Constitution.

The revision then requires an affirmative vote of the Steering Committee voting members. When the Service Owner confirms that the change was agreed by the relevant stakeholders, a written notice must be sent to all Participating Federations. The change to the Constitution becomes effective one month after sending the notice, unless otherwise specified in the notice. 

9. Change Log