HID and Sharry debut digital wallet student IDs in Europe with H-FARM College

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.
 
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.
 

A Fully Connected Campus Experience

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.
 
“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 modernize access and identity, without compromising security. And we believe it will become a reference point for higher education deployments across Europe.”
 
“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.