April 15, 2020
Just three weeks ago, the international science community asked for help. Schools and research organizations could make it easier for researchers and scientists to join global collaborations formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a matter of an identity provider releasing a few pieces of information to the REFEDS Research & Scholarship Category (R&S), which includes more than 140 collaborations or supporting services. It’s all about simpler onboarding.
The community responded, with 25 institutions flipping the switch and supporting releasing information to R&S. That brings the total number of identity providers to 156. You can see the bump in the graph on this wiki page, which also lists the organizations that responded to the call.
But we need more. There are 555 identity providers in the InCommon Federation, so roughly 28% are supporting this simple release of information. You can read about R&S and the simple process for joining the club. Support your faculty and staff by making it easier for them to join these important collaborations.