‘Reconciliation through Technology and Research’ initiative next week

The Ministry of Technology and Research, under the guidance of Minister of Technology and Research Pavithra Wanniarachchi, will hold its ‘Reconciliation through Technology and Research’ initiative on 10 and 11 December 2012 at the Open University of Sri Lanka, Jaffna Regional Centre.

This event is a follow-up to the Technology Marketplace (TM) held in 2011 in Colombo to link scientific research with Industry so as to forge partnerships that will ensure that research findings are utilised to add value to industrial products, contribute to the development of the industry and thereby to the national economy. This effort is in furtherance of Sri Lanka’s commitment to transform to a knowledge based economy and also highlights a commitment to contribute to national reconciliation through collaboration in the field of science and technology.  

More importantly the Ministry seeks to obtain the views of Industry in the North on a variety of concerns, such as the problems faced in building effective partnerships with Public Research Institutions, how new research-industry tie-ups can be initiated and existing tie-ups can be made more effective and how an environment of trust and confidence can be created and sustained to promote closer collaboration between industry and public research institutions.

The event will include an exhibition and technology transfer workshops. Institutions under the Ministry will showcase their research products at the exhibition. The technology transfer workshops will feature resource persons from the institutes who will make presentations on key research findings in respect of technologies that can be transferred to industry partners, use of alternative energy sources, intellectual property rights and services that contribute to sustaining quality of industry products. Some of these technologies include cost effective building technologies, food safety measures and palmyrah extraction technologies.

Institutions that will take part in this Initiative are The Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies (ACCIMT), The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), The Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), The National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD C), The Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI), The Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (SLAB), The National Science Foundation (NSF), The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission and The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC).

In order to popularise science among students the Sri Lanka Planetarium will organise two Night Sky Observation Camps on 10 and 11 December 2012. Admittance to the camp will be limited and will be for those who registered.