Where can I use this?

To answer that question, we need to look at where you’re based — your academic HQ. That’s your home institution, or what we like to call the identity provider. For example, if you’re a student or staff member at a participating university, they will be your identity provider. Essentially, they provide you with the credentials you need to access resources at other institutions.

What you can use SAFIRE to log in to depends on the agreements your home institution (the identity provider) has with service providers – in other words, other higher education or education-related institutions around the world.

One person’s identity provider is sometimes another’s service provider. Your identity provider might function as a service provider for other universities, sharing research and other resources with them. Not all service providers are identity providers, though — many of them simply supply an academic service (e.g. access to journals) or product (e.g. software).

If your home organisation does not participate in SAFIRE, please let your IT staff know that you’d like them to.

Current service providers

The number of service providers is growing rapidly, as more and more educational collaborations are secured. Journal providers, tech companies and big science names are joining forces with learning institutions both local and international, to take research to a new level.

Thanks to the work of academic federations like SAFIRE, a student in South Africa, for example, might now have access to resources in North and South America, Japan, and large swathes of Europe – and vice versa. Not to mention New Zealand, Canada, Australia and many, many more countries — including their own. The future of global research starts here, with this simple log in.

You can see the full list of service providers here.