Merit International First Responder Digital Badging SBIR Ph I DHS231-003

Many first responder organizations at various levels, including federal, state and local, as well as non-profit agencies each have different methods of identifying first responders on scene during an incident. The lack of an interoperable and standardized credentialing solution for first responders results in more challenges with communication and coordinated access to information on identification and qualifications of the various responders. Physical ID badges are an expendable and costly method of addressing the challenges of identification and verification of credentials and are/were easily counterfeited in the past. Other approaches to physical credentials are more resistant to counterfeiting but use proprietary encodings that in turn are not universally readable. The emergence of international standards for identification and credentialing of first responders encompasses proof of identity, including verification and validation of name, age, home and work addresses, employment, etc. on and offline without needing to connect back to the issuing organization. Merit International Inc. currently has an operational digital software platform capable of deploying immediate solutions for unifying identification credentials and qualifications for cross-jurisdictional responders and volunteers in a digital and interoperable system via an Application Programing Interface (API) that is made available to individuals at all times via the web or a dedicated smartphone app. Through the implementation of Merit, stakeholders can verify qualifications, time tracking, and organization affiliation in one system that connects to any (or multiple) database(s) or spreadsheet(s) necessary to aggregate this credential data into a single clearinghouse.