By Dinara S. Gunasekera

Dinara S. Gunasekera is a Sri Lankan-American industrial scientist and an entrepreneur who has received numerous academic and professional awards and authored multiple patents, and peer-reviewed publications. He co-founded Sri Lanka’s first science consulting company, dedicated to help S&M-scale local and international companies with their R&D efforts. He was instrumental in establishing Sri Lanka’s first and only GLP-accredited synthetic organic lab, molecular recognition lab, and active pharmaceutical ingredient plant.

The Jathika Jana Balawegaya (NPP) recently released their Science and Technology (S&T) policy framework which aims to serve as a “guideline for enriching scientific and technological knowledge, allocating resources, and establishing a regulatory framework for research and development (R&D)” in Sri Lanka. Despite such lofty goals, the actual proposal is lacking in substance, originality, and clarity, and its actual impact on scientific affairs in Sri Lanka is surprisingly insignificant. The framework was released amidst much fanfare and pomp at an event led by a team of NPP-backed academics and a few industrial scientists. The hype and anticipation surrounding this event created an atmosphere of grandeur and importance. For some NPP-backed YouTubers, it was absolutely thrilling to be graced by such a “dream-team” of academics and to be enlightened with their proposals, the so-called “quantum leap”.

The event was undeniably blown out of proportion, with every minute covered and amplified by Youtubers and TV channels. Modern science and innovation contributes to economic growth? Who would have thought?! It’s as if the Sri Lankan scientific community was just wandering in the dark, oblivious to recent advancements in R&D and ignorant of the country’s need for innovative solutions, until this dream team of academics showed up and turned on the lights. Despite all the hype and the fancy language, word among local academic and industrial scientists is that this is nothing but another one of NPP’s aliya kaapu divul gedi (the woodapple eaten by an elephant with just the whole empty shell ejected with the dung!

However, one cannot help but admire the initiative taken by the NPP to develop an S&T framework. This pioneering effort by NPP is truly commendable and represents an impressive level of commitment to addressing one of the most critical elements of our path to economic recovery. A key tenet of this proposal is the American governance model, which has led to significant socio-economic progress driven by science and technology. However, the foundation of the American governance model is capitalism, which directly opposes the socialist beliefs the JVP has been promoting for many years. So, does this mean that the JVP-led NPP has now fully embraced capitalism since it is more conducive to driving innovation?

This clearly represents an internal conflict that the NPP must resolve before moving forward. Moreover, implementing this S&T proposal requires systematic training of students on concepts such as discovery, innovation and product development. However, this has been difficult due to JVP-affiliated factions forcing teachers, university staff, and science/engineering students to participate in various protests, ragging, and student politics. Therefore, desisting university politics might be the most crucial step to take if the NPP aims to improve S&T in Sri Lanka.

The proposal astutely identifies potential applications of S&T in critical sectors such as agriculture, health, and education, among others. However, the scientific community of Sri Lanka has already identified many of these issues and discussions have been ongoing for a while on how to address these matters. Thus, the academics backing the NPP proposal lack an understanding of the ground-level science and technology situation in Sri Lanka. For instance, some innovations that have been highly publicized by the NPP (and gained significant attention on social media) either resemble existing products with no significant differentiation or face scalability issues that hinder cost-effectiveness. This could be the result of some prominent members of the NPP science team never having worked in Sri Lanka in either an official or voluntary capacity. Below are a few examples of this misalignment between the local and NPP scientific views.

Agriculture; The recommendations for improving the agriculture sector is eerily reminiscent of a list created by generative AI! Many of these suggestions, including breeding high-yielding crops, novel barn management methods, and crop diversification, have already been tested or carried out by farmers and agricultural scientists at various institutes. Moreover, methods for value addition to agricultural products are constantly being thought of by entrepreneurs and established consumables companies. Genetically modified crops provide a means of improving agricultural products both by improving yields and providing resistance to biological and environmental insults. However, the proposed framework does not clarify the NPP’s stance on genetically modified crops. On the one hand, they mention utilizing genome editing technologies, but they also mention conserving protected species and plants.

Health, education, and science: This section of the proposal includes many science buzzwords, such as AI, LLM, nanotechnology, ITO and genomics. It appears that every technology with a flashy name has been included in this proposal to create a high-tech facade. Probably with the goal of making the proposal more appealing to genZ voters. Even the figures in the proposal feature numerous arrows moving in various directions, reminiscent of complex biochemical pathways, seemingly to convey that scientific intervention is intricately complex and accessible only to PhDs. However, it’s important to note that most of these proposed technologies are typically seen only in well-developed countries with GDPs exceeding trillions of dollars. Even in financially prosperous nations, the private sector undertakes such projects. For instance, AI-based technologies are predominantly developed by companies known as the magnificent seven including NVIDIA, Google, and Apple.

Another area highlighted during the quantum leap proposal launch and in the proposal booklet is mineral exploration and how Sri Lanka has neglected existing resources such as thorium, gold, nickel, and other precious metals. Underutilization of Sri Lanka’s mineral resources has been a popular conversation among the general public as well. However, methods to utilize these resources have been studied extensively by our scientists for a long time. Thorium research was explored at the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) over a decade ago. However, this project was discontinued due to the high costs of excavating this material under UN regulations. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that mining and excavation of any mineral dramatically impacts the environment. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, many of our mineral deposits are present in or near ecologically sensitive areas. The negative impact on the environment would likely outweigh any quick financial gains made through such means. For example, such activities may result in perturbations of the ecological balance in rainforests like Sinharaja or critical ecosystems in the southern seaboard.

Another buzzword gaining popularity among Sri Lankans is “value addition to products” (VAP). However, the NPP dream team has overlooked the efforts of Sri Lankan academic researchers, SLINTEC, ITI, and private sector scientists who are actively exploring ways to enhance the value of various products. Furthermore, the collaboration between the private sector and Sri Lankan scientists has already led to developing export-ready products, contributing to foreign exchange earnings. The NPP scientists are introducing this concept as if the Sri Lankan scientific community is unaware of such initiatives.

The lack of S&T application implementation in Sri Lanka is not because they have yet to be identified but primarily due to budget constraints and resistance to change. The proposal starts out by comparing GDP allocation for science and technology in Sri Lanka ((0.12%) versus neighboring countries. However, when considering GDP allocations to S&T, one must keep in mind that Sri Lanka provides free education and free healthcare with a GDP of just ~$75 billion. Although the proposal fails to mention the percentage that NPP would like to allocate, given the hype to this sector, they would probably allocate around 0.5 % of GDP. If so, one wonders which area they would compromise to achieve this: Healthcare or education?

If you do the simple math (assuming 20% as gov expenditure to GDP ratio), ~$75M/per year would be the amount allocated to S&T proposals. This amount is insufficient to achieve the NPP’s ambitious objectives such as establishing NRDMC, NIRD, drug discovery, mining and addressing reverse brain drain. These objectives also don’t align with the national priorities in a country experiencing economic difficulties, where scientists earn less than 60K rupees. One could argue that implementing these modern tools will eventually benefit GDP growth, but such outcomes typically require a minimum of 20 years to materialize. A significant drawback of these proposals is the lack of clarity regarding timelines and costing. Are these plans expected to be completed in a year, 10 years, or even 100 years? For instance, SLINTEC’s attempt to produce APIs (Application Programming Interface) already took nearly half a decade to achieve just two. Therefore, many of these proposals will likely require close to 20 years or more to realize their goals fully.

Conducting research in Sri Lanka is notably expensive and time-consuming compared to other regions. For example, a basic proof of concept (POC) experiment could easily span a year, and essential laboratory equipment like an GC/LC-MS would cost nearly five times more than in neighboring countries. If such instruments break down, it can take months or even years to find a qualified engineer for repairs. Importing chemicals can take up to eight months, and crucial chemicals and research consumables may be unavailable for import. Regrettably, the proposed framework lacks any strategy to reduce research costs or shorten timelines. In contrast, countries like China and India have numerous profitable Contract Research Organizations (CROs) due to lower research costs. Additionally, salaries for postgraduate and industrial scientists in Sri Lanka are so low that even a trishaw driver earns more. Consequently, many scientists must supplement their income by offering private tuition.

Furthermore, given Sri Lanka’s constrained funding for science and technology in the upcoming years, it is imperative that we prioritize research areas where Sri Lanka can excel. Otherwise, spreading limited funds thinly across various areas will dilute their impact and fail to make meaningful contributions to the economy. For instance, as Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot, there should be a focused effort on natural product chemistry. Currently, Sri Lanka has only one modern NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) instrument and faces challenges acquiring resources for chemicals and consumables needed for such research.

Another significant area of research is the whole genome sequencing (WGS), which has the potential to uncover hereditary cancer variations in the Sri Lankan population. Studies such as the UK Biobank in England, the 1000 Genomes project in the US, and the OrigiMed study in China propel research into their populations and discover cancer variants among their respective demographics. WGS could lead to early clinical intervention, reduce the number of cancer-related deaths, and reduce healthcare costs significantly.

In conclusion, the NPP’s S&T proposal fails to address the root causes of slow development in this sector and the significant challenges faced by Sri Lankan scientists who operate with minimal resources. Sri Lanka must prioritize addressing larger issues with science and technology soon. Academics and scientists should exercise caution when aligning with political parties. Politicians often exploit your qualifications for publicity and votes, only to discard your concerns once they gain power. Many Sri Lankan academics learned a harsh lesson from their support of GR in Viyathmaga. It’s widely known that one of the science advisors to the former president faced significant backlash from the scientific community following the fertilizer ban and had to leave the country as a result. This situation seems like a heightened version of Viyathmaga under the NPP, suggesting a troubling repetition of history.