Founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Auto-ID Center is a global industry funded research programme tasked with developing the 'ultimate solution' for RFID: an ultra low cost, open standard system, that can be used for any application on any physical object, including low-priced consumables such as grocery items. The Auto-ID Center mission is to 'merge the physical world with the information world to form a single seamless network, using the latest technology developments.' The Centre is currently focussing on development of the so-called electronic product code (ePC) ( see below for definition).

A consortium of RFID hardware vendors, universities, and software companies that formed to specify standards for hardware, tags, and architecture.

The original non-profit organization that helped develop RFID system technology. This work is now continued by EPCglobal.