The establishment of IFWMI upholds the vision to be a global referral in Islamic finance and wealth management. Thus, research, innovation and commercialization initiatives were strategically planned and carried out by fellow IFWMI researchers. Research innovations in IFWMI for the last 10 years centered on the areas below:
In 13 years of its establishment, it has facilitated full cycles of Research, Development and Commercialisation (RDC) of its research fellows within their areas of expertise.
Core competencies of the research fellows were developed via fundamental research exercises in areas marked in green bubbles. From the development of core competencies, the first development and prototype initiatives were materialized in 2015. 2016 witnessed the first innovation by a group of IFWMI researchers; Muamalat Interactive Game. The game is an learning tool for financial management and Islamic finance for industry practitioners[https://www.usim.edu.my/portfolio-items/mig-muamalat-interactive-game/].
In the following year, MIG team innovates the community version of the game, which inspires to engage the general public on Shariah-based financial management. The commercialization initiative was supported by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia under MAGRIS grant initiatives that aims to empower grassroots innovation efforts [https://www.facebook.com/YayasanInovasi/photos/the-muamalat-interactive-game-mig-community-team-in-the-magris-project-are-hard-/1249999731698666/]. MAGRIS commercialization projects enabled the innovated MIG Community into fully commercialized product.
In 2017, a birth of a training program on Shariah audit was materialized from nearly 10 years of fundamental research, knowledge transfer research and classrooms piloting. The program was further developed with industry collaboration with IBFIM. In the end of 2019, the training program was transformed into a collaborative joint program offered by IBFIM and USIM. The certification is designed to equip Islamic finance practitioners with the requisite technical understanding and professional skills on Shariah compliance audit and review processes. [https://ibfimonline.com/programmes/qualification/cpsa/]
IFWMI collaborates with multiple stakeholders aspired by the multiple helixes approach in order for USIM to be relevant to stakeholders.
