National System of Electronic Identities in Science and Education for Secure Access to Domestic and International Digital Services
University Computing Centre SRCE marked 20 years of the foundational electronic identity system in science and higher education – AAI@EduHr. The Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure for Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Croatia (AAI@EduHr) entered production on March 1, 2006, stemming from a project launched in May 2004 to meet growing user needs for reliable and secure authentication and authorization in network services. The project was supported and funded by the then Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, and implemented by SRCE in collaboration with CARNET.
The celebration was attended by numerous representatives from home institutions, the academic community, and businesses. It began with a presentation of the new directory content maintenance application – AOSI. Following a welcome address by SRCE's Director Ivan Marić, Head of the Sector for Intermediary Systems and Information Security Mijo Đerek provided a brief overview of AAI@EduHr's past and present, along with future plans.
AAI@EduHr is an infrastructural intermediary system designed to enable secure, reliable, and efficient management of electronic identities and their simple use for accessing network resources.
"SRCE coordinates the system, manages the development and maintenance of shared central services, holds the normative framework, and drives technological advancements. SRCE's visionary role has been present since the system's beginnings in 2004, with international recognition arriving in 2007 when AAI@EduHr became the first federation to join eduGAIN, now a global system with thousands of services," emphasized Mijo Đerek in his presentation.
Modern science and higher education are unimaginable without this system, as evidenced by its scale: over one million electronic identities issued by 239 institutions, usable for 944 services. In 2025, the SSO service was used at least once by over 700,000 unique users, achieving more than 54 million successful authentications, while central RADIUS servers processed over one billion successful requests.
Today, AAI@EduHr is a modern, organized, and advanced system supporting various authentication protocols and methods, following best practices, standards, and ensuring user and data security.
"AAI@EduHr is a core component of the modern e-infrastructure for science and higher education managed by SRCE, extending beyond academia to all education stakeholders in Croatia. Connected to the national NIAS system, it enables pupils, students, teachers, researchers, and staff access to network services within e-Građani. Thanks to links with international systems eduGAIN and eduroam, it opens doors to thousands of global services and worldwide internet access via eduroam hotspots. This also exposes Croatian services to the global academic and scientific market," highlighted SRCE Director Ivan Marić.
Beyond technology and standards, AAI@EduHr relies on mutual trust among participants. To preserve this, SRCE maintains and develops central services, manages necessary (meta)data, conducts regular compliance checks, and ensures high availability and resilience.
SRCE actively participates in international projects and working groups on intermediary systems and authentication/authorization. In the modern global digital environment, the OpenID Federation protocol is gaining importance for dynamic, transparent trust management and easier international connectivity. SRCE experts contribute to its specification development and implementation in SimpleSAMLphp, making SRCE and AAI@EduHr not just users but active contributors to European solutions.
The event concluded with awards for excellence in compliance with AAI@EduHr norms:
- RRIF Polytechnic in the category of institutions with up to 600 electronic identities
- Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, in the category of institutions with 600 to 1,500 electronic identities
- Croatian Catholic University in the category of institutions with more than 1,500 electronic identities
Special recognition for long-term contribution and involvement in establishing AAI@EduHr was awarded to the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET.
A special posthumous award for indelible contributions to the launch, operation, and international recognition of AAI@EduHr was given to MSc Miroslav Milinović, long-time Assistant Director of SRCE.
