The HIDDEN COST Action network (CA21120) brings together researchers with quantitative and qualitative expertise, legal and human rights experts, theorists and those who are skilled in conducting empirical research with migrants and vulnerable groups as well as historians. Established in 2022, it has grown to be a network of academics across Europe interested in issues related to the past, present and future of identity documentation. HIDDEN stands for the History of Identity Documentation in European Nations and is a network of over 200 academics across the EU and its partner countries who are all interested in the past, present and future ways that identity documents shape our lives. This is most apparent when we travel or migrate, but there are also ways in which ID (identity documentation) impacts our experiences in our daily lives. In the context of UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 that everyone should have a legal identity by 2030, and the rise of new forms of biometric digital ID, such as the Covid-19 vaccination certificates, it is timely that an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary group of scholars critically examine the antecedents of modern systems and contemporary practices which can increase societal inequalities. We are funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) which is part of the EU funding programme for research in Europe. This is a networking grant that brings researchers together over a four-year period (2022-26) in which we share our own research and liaise and listen to those in the NGO/advocacy sector as well as policy makers and those with lived experience of the issues we are examining. The Chair of the network, called an Action, is Dr. Jennifer Redmond of Maynooth University, Ireland who developed the network based on her historical research on identity documentation used in the Second World War period and who has experience in conducting oral histories in her work on gender and social history in Ireland. Ethical concerns were at the heart of the Action’s proposal in bringing in the voices of those with lived experiences to the research, publication and events of the network. Ethics also arises in the examination of archives related to personal experiences of migration, statelessness and refugee status in the past as they contain personal information.