An Investigation into Societal Challenges of Sri Lanka with a Focus on National Planning and Coordination

CASCADE is a regional project of South Asia which studies the societal challenges as outlined by the latest EU framework for research and innovation, Horizon 2020. The societal challenges were defined as; 1) Health, demographic change and wellbeing 2) Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-based economy 3) Secure, clean and efficient energy 4) Smart, green and integrated transport 5) Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials 6) Innovative, inclusive and reflective societies 7) Secure societies: Protecting freedom and society. These societal challenges were studied for a national position paper in preparation of a regional position paper. Initially a top down approach was utilised as national policies were analysed, leading to a literature review, which is to be supported through expert interviews and focus groups. Sri Lanka has extensive coverage of national policies regarding the outlined societal challenges. Therefore the issue lies not in policy availability but its implementation. Policy implementation needs to be consolidated by tackling the following: Lack of awareness, transparency and enforcement of existing national policies; Lack of facilities, resources and training to retain existing skilled personnel and to establish the next generation; Lack of funding and financial incentives for local development and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs); Lack of linkages between Government, Research & Development institutions, universities and industry (again PPPs can be beneficial) and thereby increase technical support. Central coordination is crucially required, as responsibilities are split across multiple Ministries and Government institutes and lack of committed funding lead to duplication and dormant policies. In addition to these areas for improvement, some future priorities were utilising a bottom up approach via decentralisation of authority and investment in localised networks and the promotion of multi-disciplinary research to facilitate competitive, market innovation.