DC4EU Education User Journey Deployment Workshop in Barcelona

The DC4EU project has reached a major milestone in its mission to create a secure and interoperable system for recognising educational and professional qualifications across Europe. The project hosted its User Journey Deployment Workshop on March 18–19, 2025, at the NTT Offices in Barcelona. The workshop, held in a hybrid format, involved piloting agents from across the Member States to successfully deploy the full reference toolkit for supporting digital credentials under the eIDAS 2 Regulation.

The workshop focused on the practical deployment of the toolkit, which enables Member State institutions to issue and verify digital credentials such as Personal Identification Data (PID), EducationalID, and Certificates of Professional Competence (CPC). These credentials are aligned with the European Digital Identity Wallet framework and adhere to the technical and legal requirements established under eIDAS 2.

Participants engaged in hands-on sessions covering key technical components, including:

Docker-based deployment – Complete installation and configuration of the issuer, verifier, and wallet interfaces using containerised environments.
Trusted data store population – Loading and managing trusted data through API-driven tools and scripts to enable secure storage and retrieval of credentials.
Credential flows – Testing credential issuance and verification processes based on the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard to ensure compatibility and security across Member States.

The successful deployment of these tools marks a significant step toward establishing a unified infrastructure for managing educational and professional qualifications across the EU.

A key outcome of the workshop was the confirmation of a shared approach to defining and managing key types of Electronic Attestations of Attributes (EAAs). This agreement ensures that credentials issued in one Member State can be easily recognised and verified in another, supporting the principles of mobility and interoperability.

The following credential types were identified and aligned with European standards:

Personal Identification Data (PID) – Establishes the foundational identity for each credential holder.
EducationalID and Formal Diplomas – Credentials aligned with the European Learning Model (ELM) to support recognition of academic qualifications.
Certificates of Professional Competence (CPC) – Professional certifications for regulated professions to facilitate labour mobility.
Quality Assurance Credentials – Issued by accredited QA agencies to verify the quality and validity of educational programs.
MyAcademicID and AllianceID – Credentials designed to support mobility and institutional cooperation within the European Higher Education Area.

By using the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard and integrating with EBSI (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure) trust components, these credentials meet the highest standards of transparency, legal validity, and technical interoperability.

This successful deployment supports the broader goals of the Digital Europe Programme by strengthening the infrastructure for digital identity and credential verification. It also contributes to the implementation of key European Union policy frameworks, including the Single Digital Gateway and Once-Only Technical System principles.