About Us

ABOUT US

Landslides are the most recurrent and prominent disasters in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been subjected to a number of extreme landslide disasters that resulted in a significant loss of life, material damage, and distress.

The distribution of landslides has only been mapped in limited areas as points. Therefore improve landslide-related information HEI SL Cell of SANASA Campus launched an open platform called Participatory Landslide Inventory (PLI) to record landslide information by the people who live in landslide-prone areas.

The HEI SL Cell of the SANASA Campus introduced PLI as a part of Development Oriented Research (DOR) named “Geospatial Approaches to Develop Landslide Risk Index (LRI) for Sri Lanka” funded by the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) Project. AHEAD is a World Bank-funded Sri Lankan government operation to support the higher education sector

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES -SOCIAL LINKAGES CELL
(HEI-SL CELL)

The main duties and responsibilities of Higher Educational Institutes (Universities or Campuses) are teaching and research. In Sri Lankans Higher Educational Institutes, teaching plays a major role while research plays a minor role. In order to fill this gap, The World Bank initiated its interventions through the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development Project (AHEAD) for the development of the Higher Education Sector in Sri Lanka. The main functions of the AHEAD Project are to help increase enrollment in priority disciplines, improve the quality of degree programs and promote research and innovation in the higher education sector by way of financially helping both the State and Non-State higher education institutes. Therefore, funding was allocated for Research and Innovations for the higher education institutes and instructed to establish Higher Education Institute Society Linkages Cell (HEI SL CELL) in each institute which obtained Research Grants from the AHEAD Project.

Even though there are 21 non-state higher education institutes at present in Sri Lanka, very few institutes were fortunate enough to receive a research grant. We in the SANASA Campus are very proud to have an AHEAD research grant enabling us to establish Higher Education Institute Society Linkages Cell (HEI SL CELL) of SANADSA Campus based on University Grants Commission Circular No 10/2016: guidelines to strengthen the university Business Linkage (UBL) and align with the Quality Assurance (QA) guidelines of the University Grants Commission Manual for Institutional Review of Sri Lankan Universities and Higher Education Institutions, UGC, 2015.

“Upgrade HEI-SL- Cell as an Eminent Research Hub through Innovations and Commercialization”

SANASA Campus established Research and Business Cell (RBC) on 08.09.2016 with the approval of the Academic Board of the Campus. From 2019 onwards RBC has converted to the Higher Education Institute Society Linkages Cell (HEI SL CELL).

The Main Functions of the HEI SL CELL are to

  • Identify Research & Development (R&D) activities related to innovations and have commercialization value.
  • Build a network of entrepreneurs, investors, small and large business organizations which are able to work with the Non-State HEI Researchers.
  • facilitate the commercialization of research and innovation outcomes of the Non state HEI and
  • Strengthen the knowledge of intellectual property among academics and students, and support them to obtain necessary knowledge on Intellectual Property (IP) Law and its protection when and where necessity arises.

TEAM

The HEI SL Cell is functioning under the supervision and the direction of The Chairman of the SANASA Campus. The HEI SL Cell consists of The Director of the Manager and a research assistant.

Our team is leads by the Chairman of the SANASA Campus Dr PA Kiriwandeniya. Dr. P. A. Kiriwandeniya, the founder and visionary leader of the SANASA Movement in Sri Lanka, has made an enormous contribution to the field of microfinance and microcredit in Asia. His commitment and dedication are legendary within the Asian Region.

Dr PA Kiriwandeniya
Chairman of the SANASA Campus

He is also the Head of the Department of Regional Science and Planning at SANASA Campus and the coordinator of MSc. in Geoinformatics and MSc. in Disaster Management at the University of Colombo. He is a member of SLAAS JAPAN Geoscience JpGU, Association of Disaster Risk Management Professionals, Sri Lanka.

Dr. E.N.C. Perera
Director of HEI-SL-Cell at SANASA Campus.

Ms Chamidu Gunaratne works as a Research Assistant under the AHEAD DOR project Geospatial Approaches to Develop Landslide Risk Index (LRI) for Sri Lanka” at SANASA Campus.  She is a graduate of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka with a Bachelor of Science, a special degree in Geology.

Ms Chamidu Gunaratne
Research Assistant

Ms. Bhagya Samarasinghe is the manager of HEI-SL Cell of SANASA Campus, Sri Lanka. She graduated from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka with a Bachelor of Science degree in Town and Country Planning and is an associate member of the Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka. She has expertise in disaster and risk management systems.

Ms Bhagya Samarasinghe
Manager of HEI-SL Cell of SANASA Campus
PLI