Consortium EMIL grows by further partners

The EMIL (eIDAS ökosysteM Identity seLf-sovereign) project is growing: with additional members and partners from well-known industrial companies and municipalities - including the city of Jena - the initiative has now reached a considerable size under the consortium leadership of targens GmbH. EMIL is a project that was launched as part of the innovation competition of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, "Showcase Secure Digital Identities". The aim of the consortium is to standardise and establish mobile, universally applicable and legally recognised digital identities for natural and legal persons and objects. At the end of the six-month competition phase, EMIL's orientation is now clear - in terms of use cases and partners. This could soon make the identity card for the Internet a reality.

Be it a mobile phone contract or the conclusion of a loan - identity checks are commonplace in private everyday life - and in the business environment they are a matter of course. Until now, these checks have involved considerable effort and the data used for them has often been outdated or of insufficient quality. EMIL changes that.

Many use cases increase acceptance noticeably

The fictitious person 'Emil' represents all citizens who use services that require a secure digital identity. Due to the focus on the challenges and needs in the use of digital identities, particular advantages for municipal use cases became apparent during the competition phase. It is therefore hardly surprising that EMIL's current focus is on projects of the consortium's municipal partners. These include cities such as Jena, Ulm and Weimar as full partners as well as associated partners such as the cities of Apolda, Stadtroda and the Kommunale Informationsverarbeitung (KIV) Thüringen GmbH and the Innovation Region Ulm. The special feature: Corresponding use cases from the field of eGovernment and Mobility are not only tested, but are simultaneously rolled out to a large number of potential users. The municipal partners receive active and prominent support from research and technology institutions. In particular the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO and the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS as full partners, as well as the University of Stuttgart, msg systems ag, ZF Car eWallet GmbH and EnBW AG. Together and on an equal footing, they all develop use cases that can be scaled across three German states thanks to this unique cooperation.

Two worlds: Standards of self-sufficient identity linked to regulated eIDAS standard

As a basis for this, EMIL establishes an interoperable identity based on the standards of self-sufficient identity and combined with the confidence of the eIDAS regulation regulated in Europe. The providers of identity solutions of the consortium will provide particular support here. In addition, Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories, Jolocom GmbH, targens GmbH and Signicat GmbH are working on a technical and professional option for the interoperability of identities. The same applies to a governance model that enables interoperable use. One focus of this project is the integration of the digital identity card of the future on mobile phones. The OPTIMOS funding project - funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) and running until summer 2020 - creates an infrastructure for mobile services that fully meets the criteria of an open and practical ecosystem.

EMIL as a bridge builder to the working world of tomorrow

EMIL industry partners such as Robert Bosch GmbH and Festo SE & Co KG focus primarily on the identities of companies and machines. They are thus building a bridge to the working world of tomorrow, in which Industry 4.0 and the networking of machines and companies play a central role. EMIL will also be demonstrating its ability to do business on behalf of employers.

The media partners 0711 Media Production Gmbh and YAEZ GmbH are accompanying the project to report regularly on progress.

About the EMIL Consortium - represented by targens GmbH

The project consortium EMIL - eIDAS ökosysteM Identity seLf-sovereign - has set itself the goal of achieving a self-determined and everyday use of more secure digital identities by involving well-known industrial companies and municipalities. The focus of the consortium is the development and testing of the broad application of digital identities and their integration into areas of public administration, economy and population by cities, municipalities and metropolitan regions. EMIL concentrates on the identification of natural and legal persons as well as IoT devices.