To help institutions safeguard access to their systems and satisfy impending federal compliance mandates, Internet2 is excited to announce the launch of NET+ Persona.
Selected through a rigorous, community-led competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) procurement process, NET+ Persona provides institutions with a unified identity verification capability to secure everything from admissions and credential issuance and recovery to financial aid workflows and federal research grants.
By combining community-negotiated pricing with research-ready flexibility, NET+ Persona allows enterprise institutions to intercept sophisticated enrollment fraud networks while simultaneously meeting strict federal security guidelines.
“Research and education institutions need practical ways to strengthen identity assurance and address fraud without creating unnecessary barriers for the communities they serve,” said Sean O’Brien, Vice President for NET+ Cloud Services at Internet2. “NET+ Persona is a solution for those challenges, providing identity verification that can meet a range of institutional needs and complementing the broader identity work Internet2 and InCommon support across the community.”
Take Action: Secure Your Institutional Roadmap
The Driving Catalyst: Upcoming Federal Research Requirements
In fall 2025, the InCommon team at Internet2 conducted a comprehensive institutional survey examining community identity verification needs. The survey results demonstrated the importance of the topic, and several key use cases emerged from this research:
- Federal Research Access Continuity: By January 2027, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will require institutions with researchers accessing Controlled Access Data Repositories (CADRs) to verify their identities at a NIST-moderate assurance level. Meeting this timeline is essential for ensuring uninterrupted access to key data sets critical for fundamental health research available through the InCommon Federation.
- Financial Aid and Enrollment Integrity: Organized fraud networks increasingly exploit legacy admissions mechanisms by enrolling under stolen identities. Including automated identity proofing during the enrollment process intercepts “ghost student” operations before financial aid funds are erroneously disbursed, protecting institutions.
- Secure Credential Issuance and Account Recovery: Institutional IT service desks and identity management offices represent primary targets for social engineering. Standardizing verification workflows prevents unauthorized access during high-risk password resets and account recoveries and streamlines the process, creating a better experience.
The addition of NET+ Persona expands options for identity verification. R&E institutions can now use the new NET+ Persona service to address their identity proofing and verification requirements for federal research access continuity through the InCommon Federation, financial aid and enrollment integrity, secure credential issuance, and account recovery.
To discover a scalable identity solution that integrates seamlessly with established R&E systems, Internet2 convened an RFP team composed of eight institutions.
In order to ensure the selected vendor met diverse R&E needs, the RFP team included community colleges, small private institutions, and large public research universities.
- Duke University
- Harvard University Information Technology
- Hudson County Community College
- Pacific Lutheran University
- Southern Methodist University
- University of Delaware
- University of Massachusetts – Amherst
- University of Wisconsin Madison
The evaluation team helped develop functional and technical vendor requirements and rigorously scored participating vendors across several operational vectors:
- Functional Capabilities: Automated government-issued document validation, biometric verification, and real-time proofing workflows customizable to institutional systems
- Technical Integration: Compatibility with Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), OpenID Connect (OIDC), and enterprise student information systems
- Compliance and Security: Alignment with the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT), Kantara Initiative trust certifications, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.x) documented via formal Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT)
What NET+ Persona Means for Your Institution
The NET+ Persona service eliminates the operational overhead associated with slow, fragmented verification processes, such as manual video reviews or physical paperwork.
By deploying automated validation, institutions can safely remove friction, scale their verification process, and improve the experience for legitimate students, staff, and faculty while dramatically hardening their security posture.
Later this year, the Internet2 NET+ team will convene an official service evaluation group composed of institutional practitioners to continue development of the program and shape long-term community governance.
The NET+ Persona service is one part of a collective undertaking by Internet2 and InCommon to help R&E institutions bolster their identity proofing positions. These efforts are informed by input from the R&E community about the most prominent identity proofing use cases and challenges.
As part of this initiative, there are resources available to institutions interested in adding additional layers of identity assurance to their environments.
Alongside the Internet2 NET+ team, InCommon is hosting an identity proofing tutorial at the 2026 Internet2 Technology Exchange.
Additionally, the second InCommon Academy Identity Proofing Accelerator begins Sept. 22, 2026, with a third cohort starting in February 2027. The Identity Proofing Accelerator is a collaborative, cohort-based learning program to help create an actionable roadmap to build or strengthen identity proofing capabilities at your institution.
If you would like to be the first to know about upcoming identity proofing events and receive identity proofing resources, we encourage you to sign up for the Internet2 Identity Proofing email list.
Join the NET+ Persona Launch Webinar
The InCommon and NET+ teams at Internet2 will co-host an interactive IAM Online webinar to present NET+ Persona and help institutions evaluate implementation strategies ahead of upcoming federal deadlines.
Attendees will hear directly from institutional RFP evaluators and technical leads regarding compliance tracking and rollout models.
This interactive webinar will also include time for Q&A. We encourage attendees to bring detailed questions to the learning session.
Date & Time: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, at 1 p.m. ET
Speakers:
- Tommy Doan, Identity and Access Management Lead, Southern Methodist University
- Maggie Larsen, Higher Education GTM Lead, Persona
- Ann West, Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships and Research for InCommon, Internet2
- Sue Gavazzi, Cloud Contract Analyst and Vendor Manager, Internet2
- Nick Lewis, NET+ Senior Program Manager, Internet2
Learn More
The Internet2 NET+ service portfolio is a selection of cloud solutions requested, vetted, and advanced by the R&E community.
You can learn more about Persona on the Persona website.
Reach out to netplus@internet2.edu to learn more about the newest NET+ service.
Additional Resources
About the Internet2 NET+ Program
The Internet2 NET+ program delivers cloud services vetted by higher education institutions for research and education. With over 20 services subscribed to by 600+ institutions, NET+ ensures solutions are optimized for functionality, security, compliance, pricing, and ease of deployment.
About InCommon and the InCommon Federation
InCommon provides software solutions for single sign-on, roaming WI-FI, access to cloud and local services, and identity and access management solutions built by research and education.
The InCommon Federation provides a secure and scalable foundation for cross-institutional collaboration, enabling seamless access to services, streamlined identity management, and enhanced data protection.
About Persona
Persona offers a unified identity platform that gives institutions the building blocks they need to securely collect, verify, manage, and make decisions about individuals’ and businesses’ identities, along with automation and orchestration tools to streamline the entire process from end to end.
Founded in 2018, Persona is headquartered in San Francisco and is available in more than 200 countries and territories and 20 different languages. Persona supports consumer-facing businesses across a variety of sectors including higher education, public sector agencies, retail, fintech, marketplace, delivery services, real estate and hospitality, HR, edtech, legal services, home and childcare services, and more. For more information, please visit withpersona.com.