Research and Scholarship (R&S) Entity Category
Research and Scholarship (R&S) Entity Categories allow Canadian Access Federation (CAF) participants that use Federated Identity Management to allow their faculty and researchers to instantly access participating research collaboration services.
The R&S Entity Category improves the trust level among CAF participants. For Identity Providers (IdPs), the R&S Entity Category attribute simplifies configuration of attribute release filters by enabling configuration of a single category specific filter, rather than a “per service” attribute release filter. For Service Providers (SPs), the R&S Entity Category reduces service integration effort by ensuring consistency of attribute release from other IdPs supporting this category.
Benefits of R&S Entity Categories
- Convenience for faculty and researchers: instant access to participating services using campus credentials, without administrator involvement
- Ease of collaboration: When a research project adds a service to the Entity Category, collaboration across participating institutions is immediate
- Vetted services: CAF reviews each service application for adherence to the category definition and requirements
- Efficient use of time and resources: once enabled, there is no additional involvement of IT staff to provision new R&S services
How Does the R&S Entity Category Work?
As the operator of the identity federation in Canada, CAF distributes metadata indicating which entities support the R&S Entity Category. Using this information, IdPs and SPs recognize each other as being part of the research and education community and thus trustworthy for exchange of a basic, standardized set of attributes.
Additional Resources:
Technical Instructions – How to Support the R&S Entity Category