HID and Sharry have introduced digital wallet-based student IDs into European higher education, a first for the continent.
This innovation, implemented at H-FARM College in Italy, allows students, faculty, and staff to access campus facilities using smartphones and smartwatches. The integration of Sharry’s smart access platform with HID’s identity solutions offers a streamlined digital campus experience.
Enhancing Campus Technology
Located near the Venice lagoon, H-FARM College houses a unique environment combining education, startups, and technology. The college now enhances daily activities with wallet-based student IDs, offering seamless access to rooms, common areas, and printer stations.
“From the very beginning, we envisioned a campus where credentials would always be within reach, directly on a smartphone. With HID and Sharry, this vision has become a reality through a solution that is simple, secure, and reliable. Student enthusiasm was evident right away: within just three minutes of receiving the notification, 70% had already activated their virtual badge - a clear sign of how much this innovation was anticipated,” stated Alberto Aldrigo, CTO at H-FARM.
Empowering the Digital Campus Experience
The H-FARM app, available on major platforms, serves as a central tool for students and visitors
The H-FARM app, available on major platforms, serves as a central tool for students and visitors, offering campus information, food ordering, and event updates. With the wallet-based student IDs, the app enhances its utility by doubling as a credential hub.
HID provides the digital ID management framework, and Sharry links the campus identity management with this infrastructure. Users easily incorporate their credentials into their digital wallets through the app. Sharry’s integration with a Genetec access control system ensures swift, secure campus navigation without additional apps or physical badges.
Pioneering Digital Infrastructure in Higher Education
Matěj Pokorný, Head of Customer Success at Sharry, expressed pride in their collaboration with HID, stating, “We are proud to join forces with HID to bring the first digital wallet experience to higher education in Europe. Our collaboration with H-FARM has been nothing short of remarkable. What might have taken months was accomplished in just a few weeks, a testament to the shared vision and agility of everyone involved.”
This deployment sets a new standard for campus modernization, potentially serving as a blueprint for further educational institutions across Europe.
Redefining Campus Interactivity
Dominic Bruning, Director of Strategic Alliances for Mobile, EMEA, at HID, emphasized the impact of H-FARM’s implementation as a model for digital campuses, stating, “H-FARM's deployment is a strong example of what a truly digital campus can be: secure, mobile and frictionless by design. By placing student identity at the heart of the digital wallet experience, this implementation demonstrates how modern identity and access can be delivered seamlessly across the entire campus environment.”
This initiative symbolizes a crucial step in advancing fully digital campuses in Europe, further strengthening the collaborative efforts of HID and Sharry, who have contributed to similar advancements in other regions like the United States and Latin America.
HID and Sharry have taken digital wallet-based student IDs into European higher education for the first time, delivering the capability at H-FARM College and enabling students, faculty and staff to access campus spaces using their smartphones or smartwatches.
The deployment marks a significant milestone for European higher education, bringing together Sharry's smart access and workplace experience platform and HID's trusted identity solutions to deliver a seamless, digital-first campus experience.
Workplace experience platform
Located on the edge of the Venice lagoon in northern Italy, H-FARM College is a unique innovation ecosystem where education, startups and technology coexist on one integrated campus. Now, the institution is pushing the boundaries of how technology enhances everyday campus life.
With the recent launch of Wallet-based student IDs, undergraduate and postgraduate students, faculty and staff at H-FARM College can access their campus spaces with just a tap of their phone or smartwatch – from their room to common areas and printer stations.
“From the very beginning, we envisioned a campus where credentials would always be within reach, directly on a smartphone. With HID and Sharry, this vision has become a reality through a solution that is simple, secure and reliable. Student enthusiasm was evident right away: within just three minutes of receiving the notification, 70% had already activated their virtual badge - a clear sign of how much this innovation was anticipated,” said Alberto Aldrigo, CTO at H-FARM.
Advancing campus technology
At the core of the campus’ digital experience is the H-FARM app, available on both the App Store and Google Play. The app enables students, professionals, and visitors to explore the campus map, order and pay for food and stay up to date with events and news. The addition of wallet-based student IDs extends that experience by enabling smartphones and smartwatches to function as secure digital credentials, reflecting H-FARM's commitment to advancing campus technology and the student experience.
HID’s trusted identity infrastructure provides the credential issuance layer, enabling secure digital IDs to be provisioned and managed at the campus scale. Sharry connects H-FARM’s identity management with HID’s infrastructure, acting as the middleware layer that ties the two together. With a single tap in the H-FARM app, users can add their credentials to their digital wallets. And, thanks to Sharry’s integration with a Genetec access control system, students can move across campus spaces quickly and securely, all without having to open additional apps or carrying physical badges.
Higher education deployments
“We are proud to join forces with HID to bring the first digital wallet experience to higher education in Europe,” said Matěj Pokorný, Head of Customer Success at Sharry.
“Our collaboration with H-FARM has been nothing short of remarkable. What might have taken months was accomplished in just a few weeks, a testament to the shared vision and agility of everyone involved. H-FARM sets a new benchmark for how campuses can modernise access and identity, without compromising security. And we believe it will become a reference point for higher education deployments across Europe.”
Digital wallet experience
“H-FARM's deployment is a strong example of what a truly digital campus can be: secure, mobile and frictionless by design. By placing student identity at the heart of the digital wallet experience, this implementation demonstrates how modern identity and access can be delivered seamlessly across the entire campus environment,” said Dominic Bruning, Director of Strategic Alliances for Mobile, EMEA, at HID.
This deployment marks a significant step toward fully digital campuses in Europe, enabling identity, access and services converge in a single mobile-first experience. It also expands the long-standing collaboration between HID and Sharry, who have previously delivered several industry firsts, including early wallet-based office access projects in the United States, European Union, and most recently Latin America.
