The OpenID Foundation congratulates the OpenID AuthZEN Working Group on winning the Outstanding Project Recognition award at the recent European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC) 2026 in Berlin.

The award was presented by KuppingerCole, one of the most respected analyst and research firms in the identity and access management space, who commented that AuthZEN that it “stood out among submissions and made a strong, positive impression" and demonstrated “a high level of quality, innovation, and dedication.”

The award was accepted on behalf of the working group by co-chairs David Brossard and Alex Olivier.  

David said: “Authentication has been well served by open standards for years, but authorization has always lagged behind. AuthZEN exists to close that gap. Building an interoperability standard from the ground up takes sustained commitment from a broad community, and the AuthZEN community has delivered. This recognition belongs to everyone who made that possible.”

Alex added: “This award reflects the work of the entire working group, a broad community that chose interoperability over proprietary lock-in. And it lands at exactly the right time: as AI agents begin acting on our behalf, a common standard for authorization is how the industry keeps the agentic era secure.”

Continuing a track record of excellence

This award continues a proud tradition of EIC recognition for the OpenID Foundation’s work.

In 2024, the Foundation’s OpenID for Verifiable Credentials work took the EIC award in the Future Technologies and Standards category. In 2018, the OpenID Certification Programme won the EIC Award for Best Innovation. And in 2012, OpenID Connect itself won the same award. 

Gail Hodges, Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation, said: “AuthZEN's recognition at EIC 2026 adds another chapter to a proud story of innovation across the OIDF community. This is a highly deserved acknowledgment of the group's collaborative work that has put interoperable authorization on the map. We congratulate everyone who has contributed to the AuthZEN WG, and we look forward to seeing what comes next.”

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, OAuth2 - the FAPI standard for interoperable, high security - has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue that enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.