SCIENCE

 Research organizations, including government labs and virtual organizations, can now join InCommon and take advantage of federated identity management for shared services, scientific collaborations, and other online applications.

“By joining InCommon, scientists at U.S. research facilities and universities can more easily share resources, which will improve collaboration,” said Jack Suess, chair of the InCommon Steering Committee and vice provost of information technology and chief information officer at UMBC. “With the close connection between universities and research organizations, and the growing popularity of virtual organizations, this should be a big boost and time saver for all of our participants.”

This is the third category of organizations now eligible to join InCommon. In addition to research organizations, the 290 participants include higher education institutions and sponsored partners – companies and non-profits that offer web-based resources and services. InCommon is operated by Internet2 and provides a suite of trust services for the U.S. education and research communities.

Particular interest and motivation came from Science Identity Federation, a project funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science, and organized by Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab with support from other DOE national labs and facilities. 

Fostering collaboration is one of the main objectives of the InCommon Federation. The federation provides a secure and privacy-protecting method for giving individuals access to protected or licensed online resources, such as library databases, multimedia content, research information, collaboration tools, and services provided by government agencies. In a federation, all participating organizations agree on standard policies, practices and technology standards for all interactions, making it easily scalable. 

For more information on InCommon and a full list of participants, visit: http://www.incommon.org