Swiss edu-ID Phase II

The Swiss edu-ID Mobile App project develops a mobile app for securely authorizing third party mobile apps to the distributed academic services of Swiss higher education institutions. The project contributes to and supports the uptake of mobile apps that are provided by Swiss Universities and commercial providers with the available services on the Swiss Academic Information Infrastructure.
The Swiss edu-ID Mobile App will provide an open source framework based on open standards and existing platform technologies for on-device authorization for native and hybrid mobile apps that want to connect to the academic infrastructure. The project extends the Swiss edu-ID identity management and authorization service by providing a transparent and trustful approach for end users and service providers when exchanging data with mobile apps on Android and iOS. The project will simplify the development and maintenance of mobile apps as well as the sharing of mobile apps between Swiss Academic Institutions by providing a “Native Authorization Integration Layer” for native and hybrid mobile apps. Furthermore, the project’s frameworks are publicized to commercial mobile app developers for authorizing against the Swiss edu-ID infrastructure and for linking commercial mobile apps to the existing services at the academic institutions in Switzerland. Therefore, the project will leverage the creative and innovative potential of mobile app developers, both, in Swiss Higher Education and Research, as well as by commercial providers.
The Swiss edu-ID Mobile App project will firstly demonstrate the app concept and feasibility by integrating already existing mobile apps with the learning management systems of the partnering universities. This lead to clearer functional requirements and libraries for embedding mobile apps into the distributed IT service landscape of Swiss academic institutions. Secondly, the project will integrate the app with the SWISS edu-ID services and provide a practical solution that will be part of the long-term Swiss edu-ID infrastructure.