Enabling the implementation of Schemes at any scale
IB1 Trust Services™ provide the live operational, legal, and technical infrastructure that makes safe, scalable, assurable data sharing possible between organisations that may have no prior relationship. Transparent by design and open by default, it is built on open standards, is openly licensed and operated by a public-benefit non-profit Limited by Guarantee company.
Fully comprehensive including collaborative governance, technical implementation and operations, IB1 operates open source Trust Services as a non-profit. Built through collaboration, they are both transparent and robust as sector or national data infrastructure. Trust Services are designed to deliver the core systems to implement any Scheme. IB1 Trust Services are non-proprietary and non-profit and its IB1 Trust Frameworks are designed to integrate with other Trust Frameworks. IB1 is federated by architecture, not siloed by design.
Trust Services replace the need for repeated bilateral negotiations: they embed assurability, commercial and public and trust into the infrastructure itself, not just the individual participants. IB1 Trust Services enable multilateral agreements to replace what would otherwise be dozens or hundreds of bilateral contracts. At IB1 Data Infrastructure means addressing business cases, legal, policy, technical and communications needs through clearly defined Schemes: Trust Services enable the enactment and enforcement of those rules, as determined by its Members.
Eliminate the need for repeated bilateral negotiations between organisations that want to share data and simplify the process of change management. Once a Scheme is established, joining it is a single legal step, not a contracting exercise.
Commercial competitors, regulators, code bodies, and third parties can share data under the same collegiate governance framework. It is pre-competitive by design, with no single participant having a governance advantage. It can enable adaptive policy to respond to the rapidly changing data and AI landscape in relevant-time.
Assurability and transparency are built into IB1 Data Infrastructure, not bolted on after the fact. All data flows are verifiable, organisations are identifiable, and rules are both human and machine-readable.
While they can be legally and technically separated, the same Trust Framework approach underpins all IB1 services, spanning Energy, Water, Finance, Transport, Built World, Agriculture and Supply Chain schemes. Cross-sector data flows are possible between verified organisations using Schemes either co-designed via Icebreaking, or independently created.
All IB1 Trust Services are NOVA-compliant: they are based on a Networked, Open, Verifiable Architecture. This is a market framework reference, developed by IB1, based on its team’s experience in helping create Open Energy, SERI, Perseus and the Open Banking Standard (which has been adopted in over 60 countries). NOVA compliant systems support open markets, enhance data protection, and are designed for federation. This means IB1 Trust Services can integrate with other Trust Frameworks (e.g. Open Banking) enabling cross-scheme data flows with reduced compliance overheads for organisations participating across multiple Schemes.
Supports participation across organisations, sectors, and jurisdictions without requiring a central data repository: you control your data.
Uses open standards, with API-enabled access, and transparent governance. Specifications are published under open licenses.
Data exchanges must be auditable, rights-based, and permissioned, aligned with existing and emerging policy and regulation. Organisations are verified, not trusted on assertion.
Optimised for market access by any verified business: organisations can join by passing market-appropriate checks, with rules that adapt at a market-relevant pace.
IB1 Trust Services operate an integrated service stack, all of which are open source. This means if you’d rather run your own, you can: IB1 can operate one for you, or help you set up your own.
Codifies both Trust Services and Scheme rules in machine-readable format. Holds master agreements, roles, licences, assurance specifications, policies, access permissions, data standards, and API specifications. This is persistently defined and every change is under relevant Scheme governance.
A system of record for organisational identity and Scheme membership. This includes a secure member portal for certificate issuance and agreement management, and openly publishes verified organisations, Scheme memberships, and assigned roles to underpin transparency.
Publishes Scheme-conformant data service catalogues that have been registered by member organisations, and enables automatic conformance checks. It is published openly, with API access for applications and is indexed in public search engines. This it the entry point for service discovery by members, government, regulators, businesses and the public.
An environment with synthetic data that is functionally identical to production environments. This enables members to develop and test compliant data services without data protection concerns, and includes tooling for debugging, compliance checking, and security.
Reusable atomic definitions for technical, legal, and procedural elements of Schemes. This covers registry, security, identity, data publication, assurance, and sensitivity classifications.
For the avoidance of doubt, IB1 never sees the underlying data being shared, it does not broker data, set the price of data, or know the identity of end users. Trust Services verify that rules have been agreed and enables their enforcement, and nothing more, by design.
With trust, open source is not just a nice to have. Proprietary solutions introduce a new concentration risk: operators become a new kind of intermediary with potentially asymmetric power and conflicts of interest. Open source, non-profit operation removes that risk entirely.
Unless otherwise agreed, IB1 outputs are openly licensed: any organisation if free to inspect, verify, or implement the specifications independently and also mitigates dependencies on IB1’s continued commercial existence. Further, IB1 has no financial interest in what or how data flows between verified organisations, in the price of that data, or in which participants gain market share. Members determine their own rules, not their operator.
Every rule in every Scheme is publicly auditable in machine-readable format. Formal Steering Group and Advisory Group minutes are published openly. Every change to the Registry is versioned and traceable, and regulators, members and market participants can verify governance at any time.
IB1 is non-partisan and non-profit. It has no commercial interest in how data flows between verified organisations, in the price of that data, or in which organisations grow market share as a result. This is what makes it acceptable to competitors as shared infrastructure.
Because IB1 is non-profit and drives down cost by default, TF-Ready membership starts at £50-600 per month scaled by organisation size. As IB1 describes it: as simple as a mobile phone contract. The infrastructure is not a competitive advantage to be monetised; it is a public good to be operated at cost.
IB1 is not a walled garden. NOVA-compliant architecture means IB1 Trust Services are built to interoperate with other Trust Frameworks, not to replace them. Organisations participating in multiple schemes across different frameworks can reduce compliance overhead and credential duplication.
Work is underway to align Perseus with Open Banking so that Financial Service Providers and Carbon Accounting Platforms participating in both schemes can rely on Open Banking for organisational identity and know-your-business checks. This reduces paperwork and time-to-membership for dual participants, and is the first step towards cross-scheme assurable data flows.
Verified organisations in one IB1 Scheme can share data with verified organisations in another without new bilateral agreements. As multiple Schemes mature, the Trust Framework creates a common verified layer across sectors: energy to finance to supply chain to water, without requiring each sector to rebuild the underlying infrastructure (Members opt-in to shared Schemes).
NOVA systems are explicitly modular and federated. Multiple platforms, protocols, and providers can coexist. IB1 does not require that all participants use IB1 infrastructure exclusively. The goal is harmonisation of the governance layer, not centralisation of the data or its technical implementation.
IB1 Trust Services are designed to support mandatory as well as voluntary Schemes. Where a regulator or governing body operates or commissions a Trust Framework, IB1 can operate as its implementation entity, integrate with an existing framework, or provide the open source specifications for a body to operate independently.
Trust Services enable engagement in five steps. Members progress from experimental to live in a structured pathway with no data protection exposure until they are ready.
IB1 was founded by the people who led the creation of the Open Banking Standard and the Open Data Institute.
Trust Services membership is structured in three layers with each layer unlocking the next. The entry point is as simple as any subscription.
Baseline membership for Trust Services collaboration with a simple membership agreement. Participate in private working groups, bring forward use cases for Icebreaking and shape the market. Enables participation in governance and Scheme design. Fees scale based on organisation size. Enables participation in Trust Framework Membership.
Trust Framework Membership. Sign the Trust Framework Agreement. Receive verified organisational identity, an enabling legal agreement, and access to Registry, Directory, Catalogue, Sandbox, and Open Libraries. Fees scale with organisation size. Enables participation in Scheme Membership.
Active data sharing. Requires opt-in to specific Scheme Agreement(s). Access, process, and share data with clear legal rules and in compliance with member-defined policies and regulations. Peer-to-peer assurable data flows between verified organisations. Variable by organisation size and scheme complexity.
Shape the open source Trust Framework itself. Engage in Technical Architecture Advisory Groups across all Schemes. Co-develop the standards that the whole market depends on. Fees scale with organisational size. At enterprise level, includes top Sponsor tier with co-marketing rights across IB1 programmes.
Fees cover all types of data sharing within a Trust Framework. Scheme-specific fees are additional and variable. Prices reviewed annually. Non-profit and academic bodies qualify for the micro-business rate.
Talk to us about which approach is most relevant for your organisation, or start with TF-Ready membership to get your technical infrastructure in place before the right Scheme goes live.