Modern astronomy depends on a highly distributed ecosystem of data archives, science platforms, high-performance computing facilities, observatories and international collaborations. Researchers routinely move between institutions, projects and services, while infrastructure providers must balance usability, security, accountability and interoperability. As a result, many astronomy communities face common challenges around persistent researcher identity, project-based access, governance, service interoperability and cross-organisational trust.

This Birds of a Feather session will explore how astronomy infrastructure can better support researchers operating across national and international environments. Drawing on recent Trust and Identity roadmap work undertaken within the Australian astronomy community, the session will examine recurring themes including researcher mobility, project and collaboration-based access models, federation, identity lifecycle management, and trust relationships between services and organisations.