Our starting point all those years ago.
Our Vision
Our Mission
- Establish strategic partnerships.
- Work with people who will benefit from research.
- Influence policy makers.
- Facilitate multidisciplinary research.
- Promote an environment free of bureaucracy to carry out research.
Who are we ?
We are a group of concerned professionals who wish to see an overarching research culture in Sri Lanka. Although high impact research takes place in our country, it is fragmented and rarely transferred into policy and practice. Therefore we are working to achieve a paradigm shift in the thinking pattern and actions of the scientific and scholarly community to create a new strategic alliance among academics, scholars, professionals and the public to build a new research culture in Sri Lanka, so that the power of knowledge in science & technology could be mobilized to address the problems of the society using an evidence-based approach, which in turn is crucial for the sustainable development of the country. In short, our slogan is ‘Research for development and policy impact’.
Our History
Initially in 1997 we started as the Forum for Research and Development which was incorporated as a non-profit, independent, academic institution and a professional network. Later it was converted into the Institute for Research & Development. During initial years of conceptualization, we realized that an initiative with a different focus and emphasis was needed to rectify the contradictory gaps existing in Sri Lanka; even with a high literacy rate in the region, Sri Lanka lacked an overarching research culture. Therefore, we decided to bring all our activities under one organization.
Our Journey
Moved to a small rented house which became our office.
Next we moved to another office space in Battaramulla, Colombo in 2005.
Private office was turned into IRD office.
Moved again to another house.
Finally moved to our current office premises in 2009.