IAM4NFDI - Base4NFDI

Understand IAM4NFDI in under 4 minutes:

Identity and access Management for the nfdi

IAM4NFDI is for everyone in the German research ecosystem. Whether you're a researcher needing seamless access, a service provider overseeing resource access, IT admin integrating systems, or a consortium manager enabling collaboration: IAM4NFDI is the federated Identity backbone of the NFDI - built to last.

Already used by thousands of scientists on a daily basis.

Who is IAM4NFDI for?

Researcher(s)

One identity everywhere in the NFDI

Use your organisational identity to access resources across all NFDI.

NFDI Consortium Managers

Foster collaboration

Choose one of the open standards-compliant IAM Community AAI solutions for your community.

Service Providers

Authentication you can trust

Community PIs & AAI Admins

Manage access at a glance

Define granular user access, groups, and roles for your community.

Did not find yourself? Find more use cases here.

24

out of 26 NFDI Consortia are integrated into the federated login system

2

Services outside NFDI have connected to IAM4NFDI

19

Participating NFDI Consortia in Incubator programme

Events and more

Events

June 18, 2026, 2 to 5 p.m., online

Community Workshop: Get the latest updates on the CAAIs, incl. Q&A with CAAI representatives!

Meeting link - No need for registration.

June 18, July 16, Aug 20, Sep 17, 9 a.m., online

IAM4NFDI Sprint-Demos & Q&A

Registration

Dec 7, 2026, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., online

Demo Session: Learn through practical examples what virtual organisations can accomplish!

Registration coming soon

Publications

Publications can be found on the service's documentation and on Zenodo.

Videos

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IAM4NFDI explained in text

IAM4NFDI provides researchers with seamless access to digital research resources! By connecting and expanding Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems, this initiative enables researchers across Germany and worldwide to seamlessly access tools, data, and services within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). The decentralised, federated approach ensures secure and easy integration with external platforms like the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), benefiting thousands of institutions and researchers.

IAM4NFDI explained in video

Understand IAM4NFDI in under 4 minutes:

Get more insights by PI Marius Politze in 10 minutes from our Basic Services Roadshow:

Agile adoption to IAM4NFDI via Incubators

An incubator speeds up the development and integration of the service in the community in an agile work programme.

Benefit: Incubators aim to develop, foster, and mature (new) ideas in identity and access management.
Example: Connect your service to the CAAI or Infrastructure Proxy.

What to expect: One incubator lasts for 1 cycle = 6 months. 1 sprint per month. Sprint demo every month.
Call: Call for submissions is published 2 months before each cycle begins.
Application: NFDI Consortia, NFDI services, or external partners can apply using a provided template.

how to apply

See all incubators on IAM4nfdi Dashboard

★ NFDI Success Story ★

IAM4NFDI has made it to the list of the official NFDI Success Stories!

NFDI explained how IAM4NFDI made access to the research data management platform Coscine easier, more secure, and better connected across the NFDI landscape during two successful incubator project cycles.

The incubators show how IAM4NFDI supports seamless access to research services across the NFDI and helps create a consistent, trustworthy login experience for the research community.

Continue reading here.

Do you plan to..

.. connect your Consortium's service to IAM4NFDI?

Choose a Community AAI and easily organise access and subgroups.

.. make your service available cross-community and NFDI-wide?

Connect to the IAM4NFDI Infrastructure Proxy.

.. connect a more complex use case to IAM4NFDI?

We invite you to apply as an incubator project.

.. prepare your service for EOSC connectivity?

Connect to the Infrastructure Proxy.

.. take a deep-dive into our architecture?

Take a look here at our architecture.

.. look into our security and policy framework?

Take a look here at our framework.

Contact the team for remaining questions.

Materials, infographics, learning, etc.

Fact Sheet (Jan 2026)

Find the fact sheet on Zenodo

Poster from UC4B (Aug 2025)

Click to download

Team

Principal Investigators

Wolfang Pempe, DFN-Verein Berlin, NFDI4ING
Marius Politze, RWTH Aachen, NFDI4ING, NFDI-Matwerk

Project Team

Marcus Hardt, KIT Karlsruhe, NFDI4ING
Matthias Bonn, KIT Karlsruhe, NFDI4ING
Sander Apweiler, FZJ, PUNCH4NFDI
Ilona Lang, RWTH Aachen, NFDI4ING
Marcel Nellesen, RWTH Aachen, NFDI4ING
Sarah Ebrahimi, RWTH Aachen, NFDI4ING
Michèle Robrecht, RWTH Aachen, NFDI4ING
David Hübner, DAASI International Tübingen, NFDI4ING
Peter Gietz, DAASI International Tübingen, NFDI4ING
Thorsten Michels, RPTU Kaiserslautern, DataPLANT
Katharina Roth, RPTU Kaiserslautern, DataPLANT
See-Ling Wong, GWDG, NFDI4ING
Christof Pohl, GWDG, NFDI4ING
Laura Hofer, FZ Jülich, PUNCH4NFDI

Contact the team directly: send an email to aai-kernteam"at"lists.kit.edu.

Project development phases and current status in the Base4NFDI process

01.02.2026 - 31.01.2028 (ongoing!)

The IAM4NFDI project is advancing into its Ramp-Up phase to transition the established NFDI Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (NFDI-AAI) consisting of the Community AAI services, the Infrastructure Proxy, and its Policy Framework into an operational, reliable, and sustainable Basic Service. Building upon the successful integration of most NFDI-Consortia, this phase focuses on scaling the service, enhancing the user experience, and supporting the integration of more complex services through incubator projects. IAM4NFDI will continue to proactively integrate the evolving standards and technologies, especially those relevant for the EOSC AAI, to meet future needs of the NFDI in its role as the German national node. To ensure long-term viability, we are establishing a durable operational model with the service providers and want to shape and integrate into the future sustainable governance and funding strategies in close cooperation with the NFDI association and Base4NFDI.

Read the Ramp-Up proposal on Zenodo

01.02.2024 - 31.01.2026

This stage focused on integrating various services into the NFDI-AAI, with different levels of integration complexity addressed by separate work packages. NFDI consortia can integrate some services themselves using provided documentation, while more technically involved integrations will be handled in specific work packages. An incubator, modelled after the GEANT project's concept, will facilitate community-driven development for integrating specific services and extensions, with the involvement of IAM4NFDI and NFDI Consortia representatives.

Read the blog post on the achievements during the Integration phase

Read the Integration phase proposal

01.03.2023 - 31.01.2024

Even before the project began, the team developed a modular architecture for the future NFDI Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (NFDI-AAI) based on concepts that are already established in the international research communities (AARC). The same applies to the underlying standards and best practices such as attribute profiles and the policy framework. The concept of a Community AAI plays a central role here, for which as-a-service solutions will be developed. During the initialisation phase, these concepts will be implemented and evaluated together with the NFDI community. The experience gained here will be an important basis for the integration phase.

Read the Initialisation phase proposal

How does Base4NFDI support the service development?

Service Stewards play a crucial role in supporting the development and integration of basic services within NFDI. They facilitate collaboration between consortia, partner organisations, and sections, acting as requirement engineers and consolidating information for Base4NFDI, leveraging their domain-specific knowledge.

Contact Service Stewards