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Organisational interoperability focuses on involves aligning the goals, workflows, and responsibilities of different entities involved in identity wallets and distributed identity systems. This includes. Our approach begins by focusing on the Research and Education (R&E) sector in the EU and EEA, with an emphasis on alignment with the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet initiative. This initial phase targets four key organisational categories:

1. National Research and Education Networks (NRENs)
2. Collaborative R&E initiatives, such as Erasmus Without Paper, that operate across institutional and national boundaries.
3. Higher education institutions, including universities and colleges, acting as credential issuers, verifiers, and relying parties.
4. Administrative bodies linked to institutions, such as those providing student services or managing third-party integrations.

Organisational interoperability in this context also requires:

• Collaboration between Stakeholders: Ensuring that organisations such as governments, R&E institutions, and private companies can coordinate their efforts. For example, a government-issued digital ID EUDI credential should be usable by an R&E service (acting as a verifier).
• Shared Processes: Establishing common processes for user binding, identity issuance, verification, and revocation across organisations. For instance, standardising how a university issues a -issued digital diploma that can should be verified verifiable by an employer’s identity system across borders.

In later phases, this work will expand to address global interoperability needs, enabling cross-border interactions with non-EU ecosystems

Legal Interoperability

Legal interoperability ensures that identity wallets and distributed identities comply with diverse legal frameworks across jurisdictions. Key considerations include:

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• Common Data Models: A data model defines the structure and relationships of data elements, providing a framework for how identity information is represented and exchanged. Using standardised attributes, such as those defined by the W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model, OpenID4VC etc, ensures a “date of birth” or a "person identifier" are consistently structured and interpreted across systems.
• Ontology Alignment: Agreeing on the meaning of terms, such as what constitutes a “verified identity” or a “trusted issuer,” to avoid miscommunication.
• Interoperable Formats: Supporting formats like JSON-LD for credentials to ensure data can be read and processed by different identity wallets.
• Schemas for understanding credentials: Schemas define the specific structure and required attributes for credentials, such as those used in ELM, OpenBadge, EMREX, ELMO, but also different isolated schemas at the national level. These schemas must be interoperable to allow credentials issued in one system to be understood and verified in another. For example, a schema for a digital diploma must specify fields like issuer, recipient, and issuance date in a standardised way.
• Profiles: Profiles are sets of specifications or configurations that define how standards and protocols are implemented to achieve interoperability.
  • A transport interoperability protocol, such as HAIP (High Assurance Interop Profile) or something more lightweight like DIIP (Decentralised Identity Interop Profile), ensures consistent communication between systems.
  • Trust profiles, such as the OpenID for Research and Education (OpenID4RE) Project or  the OpenID Federation for Wallets architecture, establish rules for trust relationships.
  • National profiles, like those bases on ELM, may further specify local requirements for credentials formats and verification processes.

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