National Science Foundation to celebrate 50 years of service excellence

The National Science Foundation (NSF) of Sri Lanka announced plans to celebrate 50 years of service excellence on 4 October as the country’s apex body powering the promotion of science, technology and innovation for the economic and social prosperity of Sri Lanka. The event will be held under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena. The announcement was made at a press conference graced by Minister of Science, Technology, Research, Skills Development and Vocational Training and Kandyan Heritage Dr. Sarath Amunugama. 

“Long-established institutions such as the National Science Foundation have ensured throughout the years that Sri Lanka was steadily progressing in the right direction towards a promising future in advancing knowledge and technology,” stated Minister Sarath Amunugama. “I congratulate the National Science Foundation on this remarkable milestone and pledge the Ministry’s support for their future endeavours in the country’s intellectual and technological development.”

Originally established in 1968 as the National Science Council (NSC), and later succeeded by the Natural Resources Energy and Science Authority (NARESA) in 1981, the institution was re-established as the NSF in 1998 by the Science and Technology Development Act No. 11 of 1994. This landmark golden anniversary proudly acknowledges the NSF’s role in establishing a knowledge-based society through the utilisation of scientific resources and technology across the island, strengthening the potential of scientific research and development to benefit public, private and industrial sectors as well as the strategic elevation of development and welfare of the people of Sri Lanka. Today, the Foundation enjoys its highly acclaimed and prestigious position among scientists, academics, undergraduates and school children locally as well as globally, as one of the most knowledgeable and scientifically advanced Foundations in the world. 

“Our mandate for the past five decades as a pioneering national body has been the empowerment of people through knowledge and technology dissemination,” stated NSF Director General Prof. Ananda Jayawardane. “We have endorsed capacity building through the provision of grants to scientists and technologists across local universities and related educational institutes to carry out significant and transformational research studies that have resulted in highly impactful advancements across the country. Additionally, we have also supported technology development and knowledge transfer, innovation, international collaboration and awareness generation of Sri Lanka’s own capacity and genius. We are thrilled to be completing 50 years of service to our country, and promise to strengthen our commitment to serve our nation further.”

The NSF consists of six segregated divisions; the Research Division, Technology Division, the International Liaison Division, Science Popularisation Division, Science and Technology Policy Research Division and the National Science Library and Resource Centre. Each division operates under a specific mandate to ensure seamless and integrated functionality across the foundation to produce unmatched knowledge across multiple science and technology streams across Sri Lanka. 

The NSF is also behind one of the most advanced, and highly comprehensive knowledge gathering projects in the region – the National Digitisation Project, a five-year old project established in 2013 that has seen the digitisation of a staggering three million science and technology related volumes, manuscripts and books to create an encyclopaedic online database for academics and stakeholders to benefit from the distribution of unparalleled knowledge.