The visit to Malta was initiated by participating academics from Maldives and Malta in the CABARET project during CABARET steering committee meetings held in Sri Lanka and Spain in 2017. Dr Shazla Mohamed, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Science and Technology and Dr. Ruben Paul Borg, Senior Lecturer from faculty of the Built Environment, identified the need for collaboration between both institutions, especially in the context of small islands nations. The main areas of focus during the discussions were to explore opportunities of common interest in research and education. In February 2018, Dr Ruben invited, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Maldives National University Ms Aishath Shaheen and Lecturer Fathmath Shadiya to visit University of Malta.
The main objective of the visit was to discuss the CABARET project research activities, areas of mutual interest and collaborative research including but not limited to Disaster Resilience in the built environment, resource management, materials in building and civil engineering and quality management.