The National Science Foundation jointly with the Ministry of Science and Technology organized the National Science Day 2024 which was held on Wednesday, 27th November 2024 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. The morning session was a research symposium aimed at school students whilst the after-noon session set the stage for conveying the government’s new policy on science and technology. The keynote speaker in the after-noon session, Prof. Gomika Udugamasooriya, Senior Advisor on Science and Technology to His Excellency the President appearing first time to the public revealed the new policy on science and technology. In the key note speech, he shed lights on the essence of the new science and technology policy in terms of importance of leveraging on science and technology towards socio-economic development, government commitment to increase the Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD), systematic and well-focused approach and deploying the resource base in a concerted and optimized way. The audience comprised and represented the whole spectrum of relevant key stakeholders as well as printed and electronic media - organizations under the Ministry of Science and Technology, academicians and undergraduates from government universities, non-state sector higher education institutions, vocational training institutions, and the NSF objective science reporting programme. The message was also channeled at large to the public via streaming live through the NSF YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQfNhYYwm98).
The objective of organizing the after-noon session was to convey the key message on the new science and technology policy to key stakeholders and the general public hence propelling same to achieve the objectives and goals of the new policy.
The afternoon session of the event was organized by the Media and Event Management Division under the guidance of Dr Sepalika Sudasinghe, Director General and Prof. Saman Seneweera, Chairman of the National Science Foundation. Mr Rohitha Uduwawala, Additional Secretary, attended the event representing the Ministry of Science and Technology.