Villa College held its 7th International Conference on Social Research and Innovation (ICSRI 2023) on the 17th to 18th of June 2023 (Saturday/Sunday) at Villa College. ICSRI is an annual research conference organised and hosted by the Institute for Research and Innovation (IRI), Villa College in Male’, Maldives since 2016. The aim of the two-day conference is to provide a platform for researchers, academics, students, and industry experts from a wide range of academic fields to showcase and disseminate their research findings, build networks and engage in intellectual discussions and ideation processes. The conference is expected to help identify and explore new directions and paradigms of social research and innovation relevant to the Maldives, and applicable in other societies.

The conference was officially kickstarted with the arrival of the Chief Guest, "Ms. Catherine Haswell, UN Resident Coordinator for the Republic of Maldives". Followed by the recitation of the Holy Quran, by a student of Villa International High School, Mohamed Shaihaan Ali. The opening remarks were given by the Chair of the conference, Dr. Mohamed Adil, Deputy Vice-Rector - Research and Innovation at Villa College and the welcome address was given by the Rector of Villa College, Dr. Ahmed Anwar. Followed by this, Ms. Catherine Haswell.

The UN Resident Coordinator for the Republic of Maldives launched the Research Methods book and proceeded to give the first keynote speech of the event.

In this event, 55 papers and 2 posters were presented related to the theme of the ICSRI 2023, which was “Breakthrough to Excellence: Achieving a Networked Community”. 5 panel discussions were conducted, and a total of 7 keynote speeches were given by notable individuals. In this event, 2 presenters received best presenter awards and Villa College research grants were awarded to 7 staff from Villa College.

The closing ceremony of the event was attended by His Excellency, Faisal Naseem, Vice President of the Maldives and Ms. Aishath Mohamed Didi Minister of Gender, Family and Social Services. The Vice President noted that "Breakthrough to Excellence: Achieving a Networked Community" is a timely and important theme for the conference. He stressed that by collaborating with the international community, we can tackle the numerous and complex social challenges we face today, such as climate change, poverty, and inequality. He then highlighted the need for building a culture of sharing knowledge and expertise and finding innovative solutions to problems.

In the next speech given by the Vice Rector of Villa College, Dr. Ali Najeeb, he noted the importance of creating a platform to help research papers to be published in reputed journals so students and researchers will have more resources to work with.

The research grants were then awarded to the winners by the Rector of Villa College, Dr. Ahmed Anwar. The Certificates of Appreciation to the sponsors and partners of the event were handed out by Ms. Aishath Mohamed Didi Minister of Gender, Family and Social Services. The Certificates of Appreciation were given to the event endorsers by the Deputy Vice Rector of Research and Innovation of Villa College. After a few remarks by Dr. Ahmed Ali Didi, Chair of the Evaluation Panel, His Excellency, Faisal Naseem, Vice President of the Maldives awarded the certificates to the best papers of the conference. And finally, Dr. Fazeela Ibrahim, Deputy Dean of Research, Institute for Research and Innovation, Villa College gives the final closing remarks of the ICSRI 2023. She extends a vote of thanks to all the sponsors and everyone who has contributed in making the event a great success.