BRZ & ID Austria win gold at international eGovernment competition

The project "ID Austria" of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) were awarded the gold medal in the category "Best Project for the Deployment of Innovative Technologies and Infrastructures 2022" at the award ceremony of the 21st eGovernment Competition in Berlin on September 6, 2022. In the jury's view, ID Austria is "suitable as a showcase model for a Europe-wide digital IDs". The BRZ has been an implementation partner of ID Austria since 2018.

Minister of Finance Magnus Brunner: "With ID Austria, we are setting a standard in digitization not only nationally, but also at the European level. Because ID Austria is leading the way in the development of eGovernment applications. I am convinced: We must continue to drive digitization to make our lives easier and business and government processes more efficient.

This means we are on the right track. ID Austria enables digital online identification at the highest level of security. With the introduction of the digital driver's license this year, we will continue this success story," says State Secretary Florian Tursky, who is delighted with the award.

We are pleased that with ID Austria international, an Austrian digitization project has once again been awarded, in which the BRZ is on board as an implementation partner. Our employees have contributed significantly to the development of the architecture and the successful technical implementation of ID Austria. The BRZ also provides support together with its partners, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and A-Trust (trust service provider) in the overarching operation between all the stakeholders involved," says Kurt Fleck, team leader for digitization solutions at the BRZ. 

The ID Austria project

ID Austria is the further development of the cell phone signature and citizen card. As the central digital government ID, it enables secure online digital identification, secure digital credentials, and secure use of digital services and business opportunities. More than 200 applications, mainly in the e-government sector, are already using the services of ID Austria. In the future, companies will also benefit from the numerous possible applications of ID Austria. Currently, ID Austria is in a pilot phase in which the system is being extensively tested to ensure the best quality for the official launch. With its numerous promising applications, ID Austria is also ready for the future European developments of eIDAS (electronic Identification, Authentication and trust Services) 2.0 (i.e. the EU Wallet). It is also the first mobile eID at EU level where the eIDAS security level "high" has been accepted without reservation.

My ambition is to also offer almost all official procedures digitally by 2024. This is made possible by ID Austria, the personal key to all e-government applications, such as the ID platform with the digital driver's license. The digital driver's license, which will launch this year, will make administration even more tangible for every Austrian," said the State Secretary.

About the eGovernment competition in Berlin

The competition for the modernization and digitization of public administration has been the recognized yardstick for e-government and modernization activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for over 20 years. It promotes innovation for administrative modernization and supports public authorities in user-oriented, efficient digitization. The award ceremony took place on September 6, 2022, at a ministerial congress in Berlin. Section Head and CDO of Federal Administration Mag. Maria Ulmer and Mag. Johannes Rund (for the project team) accepted the award for ID Austria as "Best Project for the Deployment of Innovative Technologies and Infrastructures 2022".