Federation and Interfederation - eduGAIN

eduGAIN interconnects identity federations around the world, simplifying access to content, services and resources for the global research and education community. eduGAIN enables the trustworthy exchange of information related to identity, authentication and authorisation (AAI) by coordinating elements of the federations’ technical infrastructure and providing a policy framework that controls this information exchange.

eduGAIN enables different AAIs to interact securely. The eduGAIN technology involves a "Metadata Service", which regularly retrieves and aggregates information from participating federations about services and identity providers, and makes this information available.

eduGAIN coordinates necessary elements of the federations’ technical infrastructure and provides a policy framework controlling the exchange of this information.

eduGAIN also liaises with other federation initiatives such as REFEDS (Research and Education Federations) and the GÉANT project's Federation-as-a-Service team.​

• Enables trustworthy exchange of information between federations without many bilateral agreements.
• Reduces the costs of developing and operating services.
• Improves the security and end-user experience of services.
• Enables service providers to greatly expand their user base.
• Enables identity providers to increase the number of services available to their users.