World Bank gives US$85 million for research

The World Bank will be providing Sri Lanka with US$85 million in funding to improve the country’s research and development due to the lack of external funding in the field, reports the Daily Mirror.

“We will be providing US$75 million for higher education through the country partnership framework,” World Bank Sri Lanka Lead Education Specialist Dr Harsha Aturupane said recently at the launch of the book Promoting University-Industry Collaboration in Sri Lanka held in Colombo recently.

He added that US$10 million will also be granted to the government over three years to provide PhD scholarships in foreign universities for deserving candidates. Aturupane said the World Bank had previously given US$800,000 in funding for research and development, which had not been an adequate boost. According to the World Bank studies published in the book, just 49.7% of academics in Sri Lanka received external funding for their research in 2015, compared to 65.2% in 2007.
Full report on the Daily Mirror site