The Science & Technology Policy Research Division (STPRD) of the NSF conducts the National R&D Survey on regular basis and the findings of the Survey are published in Statistical Handbooks. These publications reflect the status of the Research and Development activities of the respective year in the country aiming to provide a quantitative overview of the sector performance to policymakers, planners, researchers, scientists, and technologists. We strive to be on par with the international standards, where the statistical indicators presented in the publication have been developed according to the definitions and guidelines of OECD and UIS.

Information for the Survey is gathered from the institutional categories that are given below.

1. Government Sector organizations that are involved in R&D activities
2. Higher Education Sector: Government and private universities and higher educational institutes
3. Business Enterprise Sector: R&D activities done by private sector enterprises
4. Private Non- Profit Organizations: Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

The Statistical Handbook entails following R&D inputs and outputs.

The R&D survey provides country statistics for UNESCO Institute for Statistics and SDG Data Portal Sri Lanka.