Institute for the future (IFF) - Cyprus
The Institute For the Future (IFF) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Nicosia (UNIC) in Cyprus, which aims to improve the development, deployment and uptake of emerging technologies and contribute to their successful application in industry, education, and government. Founded in 2013, the research centre also dedicates resources to research and evaluate the impact of emerging technologies on employment, wealth inequality and work and social life.
About this initiative
The IFF initiative was born out of an ambition to explore the extent to which emerging, new technologies will spark a rapidly-accelerating societal change. Technologies like AI and blockchain have come about so fast that new products are being developed every minute, yet few stop to reflect on how this can impact whole sectors, social and legal systems, government, education, or healthcare. All this raises a set of fundamental questions, but mostly looks towards how future society should be organised - and the IFF initiative attempts to offer answers. Ultimately, the Cypriot centre contributes to reaching the EU Digital Decade target of 20 million ICT specialists by 2030 and advises the European Commission on several topics of expertise, including blockchain, AI, cryptography and others.
Why is this a good practice?
The Institute for the Future has succeeded in attracting interest and delivering innovative results and outputs since the initiative's kick-off back in 2013. In part, this is due to the international outlook of the University of Nicosia, where higher education programs are pred predominantly offered in English). The university is also the largest institution in Southern Europe when it comes to the provision of formal education programmes in English).
The university is the leading formal education institution on blockchain in Europe: it was the first to publish blockchain certificates, and the first in accepting Bitcoin as payment for tuition fees. A large portion of the courses are available online and in English, incorporating a variety of different formats: a testament to the initiative's scalability. The MOOCs developed by the centre have had a wide outreach, with more than 35,000 students from 95 countries enrolled.
IFF has educated over 145,000 students in academic and professional training courses, while "hosting the world’s largest team of faculty and staff focused on crypto-assets and blockchains". It serves as the academic lead for the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum (EUBOF), a European Commission initiative aiming to accelerate the development of blockchain within Europe. The EUBOF project finished in June 2024, providing a range of resources targeting those new to blockchain technology, and offering basic knowledge and insight into blockchain's various applications.
Today, IFF is home to the largest blockchain and metaverse student community in the world and partners with more than 100 research organisations from all over Europe and the world. IFF has supported the distribution of over €8 million in competitive European Commission research grants since 2017.
