The IDINA project – Non-Authoritative Inclusive Digital Identity was the winner of the third edition of the IN3+ Award, the biggest innovation prize in Portugal, promoted by the Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office (INCM). The idea, presented by the team of Prof. João Silva, from INESC TEC, to create a non-authoritative digital platform that ensures the identification of all citizens by the State to which they belong, has unanimously conquered the reputed jury.
An innovation network for the world
In order to capture ideas for its already wide Innovation Network, INCM seeks, with the IN3+ Award, to bring academia and other relevant sectors closer to the business and societal reality of the institution. As a reference company supplying essential services and products to society, with emphasis on security documents, such as the citizen card or the passport, currency and collector coins, digital security solutions, authentication of precious metals, edition of the “Diário da República”, the official gazette of Portugal and the publication of fundamental works of the Portuguese language and culture, INCM is committed to creating and implementing new solutions with an impact on the lives of citizens in Portugal and abroad.
The partnership between INCM and INESC TEC, which started in 2016, was thus strengthened, giving continuity to the joint development of another R&D project, with the possibility of application in different contexts and societies.
INCM believes that the continuation of the IDINA project, resulting from a growing humanitarian concern, may fill a gap that unfortunately, and for various reasons, according to the UN, affects several million people who have no recognized identity in various parts of the world.
The Identity Challenges
We know there are many challenges in order to accomplish this project. It will be necessary to know, on the field, the reality of each community; it will be necessary to create a reliable technological tool that allows those on the field to certify the identity of each person and for this information to be recognized by the State; it will be necessary to aggregate in a single platform information from various sources, often disparate; it will be necessary to involve various entities in the same goal.
This is unexplored territory. It requires technical expertise both at the level of data structures with complex algorithms, and at the social and behavioral level, individually and collectively.
The scope is immense, the goals are outlined, and the challenges are also opportunities to pursue a path that is already recorded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: identity. A right for all.
Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office