EDUCAUSE Announces Successful Demonstration of Electronic Grant Submission Using Institutional Digital Signatures

For Release: Thursday, January 31, 2002

Contact: Peter DeBlois Director of Communication Services EDUCAUSE pdeblois@educause.edu 303-544-5665

EDUCAUSE, the nonprofit association for information technology in higher education, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Federal Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Steering Committee today announced that several higher education institutions had successfully sent electronic grant forms signed with institutional digital signatures to the NIH. To mark this milestone, EDUCAUSE hosted a "proof of concept" demonstration for media representatives at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Today's demonstration contrasted the pile of paper that used to be required for a grant application to NIH with a real-time transmittal of an electronic form carrying two digital signatures identifying the researcher and the institutional official. The digital signatures not only identified the signers definitively, they also ensured that the same form was signed by both parties and that the form had not been changed during transmission.

During the demonstration, electronic grant applications signed by researchers and administrators of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Wisconsin Madison, and Dartmouth College were received by NIH. Even though these three institutions issue different kinds of digital certificates to their faculty, staffs, and students, each digital signature accompanying a grant application was verified and validated in real time, thus assuring the authenticity of the submission. Other academic institutions participating in the project are the University of California Office of the President, the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center, and Georgetown University. Engineering and programming support is provided by Mitretek Systems and Digital Signature Trust (DST). The Higher Education Bridge uses Certificate Authority products provided by RSA Security, Inc.

In order to support this new extension of digital signature technology, EDUCAUSE deployed on the Internet a PKI bridge, the Higher Education Bridge, that allows colleges and universities to recognize and trust each other's digital signatures. The three universities submitting digitally-signed electronic grant applications to NIH linked their trust infrastructures to the Higher Education Bridge. NIH linked its test PKI with the Federal Bridge, which performs the same electronic trust-management services for government agencies. Then, working with the Federal PKI Steering Committee, EDUCAUSE linked the Higher Education Bridge to the Federal Bridge. Once the two bridges were cross-certified, administrators at NIH could verify and validate the digital signatures affixed to electronic documents sent by the three universities.

Establishing the Higher Education Bridge and linking it to the Federal Bridge will have an enormous impact on improving the efficiency of reliable, authenticated electronic transactions among government agencies and academic institutions. Dr. Peter Alterman, Director of Operations for the Office of Extramural Research at NIH, said, "While this project used an electronic grant form to demonstrate the ability of disparate organizations to trust each other's digital credentials, the technology supports digital signing of almost any kind of electronic document or file for trusted, secure communications between any campus and any federal agency."

Today's demonstration used a test electronic grant application to showcase the enhanced trust now possible, but academic institutions may use the approach to expand all sorts of electronic business transactions. For instance, financial statements, student loan agreements, registration and attendance for Internet-based distance learning, and other innovative applications are made possible when academic institutions can exchange and trust electronic files created by business partners. Going el

About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at www.educause.edu.