An institute for small island digital futures
Island Digital Futures Institute is an independent research and policy institute being established in the Maldives. It examines how small island states can shape digital technologies, public infrastructure and emerging AI systems on their own terms, through evidence, institutional capacity and responsible governance.
Mission
What the Institute is for
To advance research, policy and institutional practice in digital governance and development, grounded in the experience of small island and capacity-constrained states.
Most digital policy is written for large states with deep institutions. Small island states meet the same technologies with fewer specialists, smaller markets and longer supply lines. The Institute works from that position, and speaks for small island and low-resource states in the places where digital rules are made.
Status
Legal status
In formation
The Institute is being established as a private company limited by shares in the Maldives. It is not yet incorporated, and it is not a university, a charity or a government body.
- Name
- Island Digital Futures Institute (IDFI)
- Intended legal form
- Private company limited by shares, Companies Act (Law No. 7/2023)
- Name reservation
NRR/2026/83024, submitted 8 November 2026- Location
- Maldives
- Founder
- Mohamed Shareef
Structure
How the work fits together
- AI Ecosystem Maldives
- The Institute’s flagship programme, with its own site at aiecosystem.mv.
- Research themes
- Four themes that frame the Institute’s research and policy work.
- Founder publications
- Papers by the founder keep their original authorship and affiliations. Listing them here does not make them IDFI publications.
- mshareef.mv
- The founder’s personal site. It is separate from the Institute.
Founder
Mohamed Shareef
Mohamed Shareef has worked on digital government and development in the Maldives for 24 years, 17 of them in government. He rose from systems administrator to Chief Information Officer at the National Centre for Information Technology, then served as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology and as Minister of State for Environment, Climate Change and Technology, where he led the country’s public digital infrastructure, including the national digital identity.
His career spans the public sector, the private sector and higher education. His research looks at AI governance and digital sovereignty from the position of small island states.