The e-Government innovation center (EGIZ) is a joint initiative of A-SIT and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance. EGIZ carries out research and develops innovative solutions that shall assist in keeping and extending the leading role that Austria holds in several areas of e-Government. EGIZ supports the Austrian public administration in further developing the ICT strategy of the federal government and it conducts research in the area of technical innovations in the e-Government environment.

EGIZ is supported by expert knowledge from different IT security research areas at the Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communications Technology (IAIK) at Graz University of Technology. EGIZ draws on the scientific background from many years of experience of researchers at IAIK. Both EGIZ and IAIK have always dealt with a great variety of topics in the field of IT security and can also look back at many years of experience in the e-Government field.

A major focus is on innovation where EGIZ represents a bridge for introducing new innovative technologies in the Austrian e-Government strategy. EGIZ also supports the Austrian public administration in maintaining the further developing e-Government key technologies. These include the national eID (E-ID) and other identity management technologies, digital signatures, qualified registered electronic delivery, etc.

EGIZ is in charge of the maintenance and further development of major open source modules for the public administration:

• MOA-ID Proxy for connecting to the national eID system ID Austria
• MOA-SP/SS as tool for creating and verifying digital signatures
• MOA-ZS – the default tool for e-Delivery
• PDF-AS for creating PAdES compliant PDF digital signatures
• etc.

Besides that, EGIZ is also responsible for

• Further education and information in the field of e-Government
• Strategic and technical consulting for public administrations
• Technical support for regional authorities
• Participation in international cooperation projects
• Promotion of interoperability at an international level
• Stimulation of synergies with the domestic economy