Investing in Nanotechnology in Sri Lanka - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 338

3 Open Innovation

Open innovation creates opportunities for all businesses to develop new products
and solutions through a collaborative innovation process by taking them from
research through development toward commercialization. Technology parks pro-
vide this enabling environment for building innovation systems and clusters.
SLINTEC aims to provide this environment by developing an open innovation
platform.
The SLINTEC innovation platform will have the following five components in
our Nanotechnology Park:

1. Research and business development.

2. Technology and business incubation.

3. Capacity building through innovation.

4. Technology commercialization center.

5. Funding mechanisms for business development.

3.1 Focus Areas

In order for SLINTEC to continue to be successful, we must focus on areas that
SLINTEC can be most effective and Sri Lanka could have a competitive advan-
tage. Hence we have chosen the five focus areas illustrated in Fig. 1 .
In Smart Agriculture, we have chosen to focus on Nanotechnology-based slow
release fertilizer. We have plans to expand into sensors, next generation fertilizers,
and other advanced technologies in the area of Smart Agriculture.
In Rubber Nano-composites, our focus has thus far been on high-performance
tires primarily for solid rubber tires with plans to advance into pneumatic tires.
In Apparel and Textile, we focus on high-end fabric, smart yarn, and other
technologies to boost Sri Lanka's robust apparel industry to the next level in global
competition.
We have developed a Nanotechnology- based external medical sensor with a
view to enabling remote health monitoring under the Consumer Products area. In
addition, we conduct research on detergents, cosmetics, and other consumer
products.

Fig. 1 Focus areas of SLINTEC