The International Conference on Social Research and Innovation (ICSRI2022), organised by the Institute for Research and Innovation, Villa College, has been inaugurated on 25 June 2022. This year’s conference is held under theme: “Reframing our future: Placing people at the centre”. This is the 6th ICSRI conference held since 2016.

The conference was opened by His Excellency, President Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of the People’s Majlis. In his opening keynote speech, he reiterated the importance and urgency of aligning development with the natural environment. He stated that developing sustainable habitats, preserving and protecting the natural ecosystem must be at the core of development planning. He emphasised the need to generate data on research outputs on national and local level development and the need to move towards evidence-based policymaking. Academic institutions such as Villa College can play a key role in this regard.

In his opening remarks, the Rector of Villa College Dr. Ahmed Anwar elaborated that this year’s conference theme is based on ideas UN Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure that the discussion focusses on empowering people to create a sustainable world, where we not only make our own lives better, but also look to the future to guarantee a safer and more sustainable planet for future generations. In this regard he also looked into how sustainability as concept has been practised throughout the history of the Maldives.

The Chair of the conference, Dr. Mohamed Adil provided details about the conference, including the 8 tracks for paper submission. These includes politics, policy, law and governance, Psychology, education and development, Business management, finance and corporate governance, Environment and TEchnoloy, Health, Nursing and Social Work, Language, Media and Communication, Religion, Art, culture and tourism.

During the opening ceremony, the International Journal of Social Research and Innovation (Vol 6 Issue 1) published by the Institute for Research and Innovation, Villa College, was also released.

The two-day conference includes 5 keynote speeches from academics in India, Malaysia, Austalia and the UK, as well as 5 Panel Discussions on pertinent topic areas. A total of 66 research papers will be presented during the conference. This year’s conference is also supported by a number of sponsors, partners and endorsers. The main sponsor is Novelty Printers and Publishers, while UNFPA and MAHRP art the co-sponsors. The conference partners are Maldives Islamic Bank, Dhiraagu, Mihaaru, VTV, Maldives Financial Review and Buruzu Catering, WaterCare and Noo Raajje. The conference has also been endorsed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, Ministry of Tourism, United Nations in Maldives, AMDESA, ESDA, ICMHD and Geneva School of Business & Economics.