Innovation is a new idea, creative thought or a new imagination in the form of a device or a method which originates as a solution to a problem. When there are more problems around, more innovations come up. During the world war ii many new inventions ranging from antibiotics to rocket technologies. Many of those inventions were a result of the hardship people had to go through during those difficult and challenging times. At present COVID 19 pandemic has created such scenario where the entire human population facing one of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced creating many problems individually and socially. We can see individuals and organizations going after answers or solutions for those problems paving the way to many innovations and inventions throughout the world.
COVID-19 a global problem generator
Under normal circumstances when ever a country faces a problem normally it looks for available solutions from their own country or other countries as it is the easiest and quickest way to get through their problems. But COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique scenario in which almost every country in the world have been affected in different magnitudes. So, all these countries face the same set of problems in different scales making it impossible to find solutions from other sources. And at the same time global lock down with very little transport available, have created the stage to find their own solutions through research, development, inventions and innovations.
When COVID-19 virus infection first detected in Sri Lanka our health system began to face many problems, triggering many individuals and organizations to jump in to find solutions.
Inventions and innovations by heart
Unlike the other days, innovation during a crisis like COVID-19 pandemic comes from the heart of the innovator. These are innovations that come with people’s desire to help take the society out of this crisis. Recent news reports highlighted innovations related to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic coming from various levels of the society that included school children, university students and private organizations.
Given Below are some of the highlights we came across in social media
The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission(SLIC)
When new innovations or new inventions of Sri Lanka are considered we can’t forget the main body that acts as the leading catalyst in bringing out innovative capability of the nation; The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission(SLIC). SLIC is also the main organization ion Sri Lanka that facilitate converting ideas in to practical applications. During this COVID19 crisis the SLIC is doing an amazing job helping Sri Lankan inventors to convert their ideas to products and practical applications.
Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission Prof. Rangika Halwathura speaking to the Sri Lankan Scientist magazine expressed his excitement over the number of new inventions and innovations reported to the commission. “From year 2016 to 2019 April, we have funded only 4-5 inventions to create businesses. End of last year we had selected 8, but we weren’t able to disperse the money. But with this COVID, we funded 12 and then the last week we selected another 6 fr funding. That itself prove what we are doing here as SLIC. But during this COVID19 crisis period we are overwhelmed by the number of good innovations that requested our assistance. During this three-month period alone, we received large number of applications requesting our assistance to develop new ideas in to products and practical applications, and we selected 138 out of those for evaluation. From those we have already funded 12 and last week we selected another 6 for funding.”
“At SLIC we are doing our best to bring these COVID19 related new ideas to practical applications, each new invention is evaluated according to the status and the significance of the invention, by a team of three professionals, and if the idea is beyond 95% in our scale, necessary funds are allocated to build the prototype, and further more we assist innovators to scale up the production or to link them with the industries, if needed we are ready to help them with the patent applications as well. And also, we are maintaining a database of new inventions through which we can easily categorize and identify feasible new inventions and innovations.”
“At the same time, we are looking forward to continue this new invention drive beyond the COVID19 crisis and now focusing on post-COVID19 strategy for inventions and innovations in Sri Lanka.” Prof. Rangika Halwathura said.
Speaking further Prof. Halwathura talked about the commitment of his staff at SLIC during this challenging period of time.
“All most all the staff members of SLIC are working hard to get the best out of these new inventions. Each of these new invention is handled by a team of 1-3 staff members and they follow these inventions closely and assist them in all possible ways. I’m really proud of my team at SLIC who are working hard with the support of other institutes in the ministry ( ITI, NERD, SLINTEC etc).” He stated.
