Research Grants

About Prof. V K Samaranayake Research Grants

The Prof. V.K. Samaranayake grants scheme aims to promote a culture of research and innovation only in Computer and IT fields in Sri Lanka by facilitating exposure of researchers to the global research community.

The Prof. V.K. Samaranayake grants programme is an initiative of the LK Domain Registry. Grant applications are managed by the Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN).

Contact “Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN)” via;

📞 +94 (0)74 370 3319
📞 +94 (0)71 661 0571

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Types of Grants

A. Grants for funding full time research students

Grants in this section will finance research activities of full-time Masters and PhD candidates registered in Sri Lankan universities.

  1. Conference or Journal Publication grants 
  • Conference/Workshop and Publication Grants are aimed at funding those who wish to present and publish full papers in reputed International conferences and journals.
  • Conferences or Journals should have a Google Scholar H-index ≥ 20 OR WoS Impact Factor (IF) ≥ 1 OR SJR Score ≥ 0.5.
  • Grant will only include lowest economy return airfare, visa fee, insurance, registration fees and accommodation with a maximum limit of USD 2000.
  • Conferences that do not have Google Scholar H-index ≥ 20 OR WoS Impact Factor (IF) ≥ 1 OR SJR Score ≥ 0.5 may be considered by the Grants Panel and the grant amount will not exceed the Rupee equivalent of USD 1000.
  • The Grant will normally cover only “Early Bird” registration. Therefore, grant applications should be submitted at least 10 days before the close of Early Bird registration.
  • Applications should be recommended by the supervisor.
  • A student can re-apply for a VKS Conference Grant only after 12 months of completing a previous visit.
  • All presentations should carry an acknowledgment of the LK Domain Registry Grant. If possible, it should also be acknowledged in the paper. The text may be worded as follows “The author acknowledges the support received from the LK Domain Registry in publishing this paper.”

To apply for a Conference/Workshop and Publication Grant download an application here.

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  1. Short Stay/Summer School grants

Short-stay grants are awarded to assist applicants who have secured short-term academic visits to foreign institutions for research work. The maximum number of grants and grant size will depend on the availability of funds.

  • The short-stay should be of a minimum duration of 30 days.
  • In addition, grants may be provided to attend a summer school of duration not less than 5 full days.
  • Grant will only include lowest economy return airfare, visa fee, insurance, registration fees, accommodation and a daily allowance of USD 30 with a maximum total limit of USD 3500.
  • Applications should be recommended by their supervisor, providing a detailed justification, and should include an offer letter from the host institution / summer school.
  • A student can re-apply for a Short-stay / Summer School Grant only after 12 months of completing a previous visit.

To apply for a Short Stay/Summer School Grant download an application here.

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  1. Top-up grants for post-graduate research
  • Top-up grants are open for those who have already secured a grant from another source (e.g. university, UGC, NSF, NRC etc).
  • The total top-up amount will not exceed the Rupee equivalent of USD 300 a month.
  • Awards are initially for a period of 12 months which may be renewed upon satisfactory performance during the year awarded, up to the normal duration of the degree.
  • Applications should be recommended by the supervisor.

To apply for a Top-up Grant download an application here.

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  1. Cloud and Other Subscriptions Grant
  • Grant is for subscribing for cloud services.
  • Grant consists of monthly fee of USD 20 for an annual subscription.
  • Applicants are required to submit their applications recommended by their supervisor, providing a detailed justification.

To apply for a Subscription Grant download an application here.

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B. Open Category Grant Scheme for all Sri Lankans resident in Sri Lanka

Grants in this section are open to all Sri Lankans resident in Sri Lanka.

  1. Publication Grant
  • Grants are for publishing full research papers in reputed Journals with H-index ≥ 40 OR WoS Impact Factor (IF) ≥ 3 OR SJR Score ≥ 1.
  • Grant will only include publication fees with a maximum limit of USD 2000.
  • The paper should carry an acknowledgment of the LK Domain Registry Grant. The text may be worded as follows “The author acknowledges the support received from the LK Domain Registry in publishing this paper.”

To apply for an Open Publication Grant download an application here.

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C. Academic Staff Grant Scheme

Grants in this section are open to all Senior Lecturers and above grades in Sri Lankan universities.

  1. Visiting Professor Grant
  • Grants are available for hosting distinguished international visiting researchers in Sri Lankan universities by researchers at Senior Lecturers or above level.
  • This scheme requires a proposal to be made by the host academic concerned and would be strengthened by previous history of collaboration and potential future engagement remotely.
  • Visit should be for a minimum duration of 30 days and is expected to result in a joint publication with the host of an article in a conference or journal with Google Scholar H-index ≥ 30 OR WoS IF >= 2 OR SJR Score >= 0.75 within the 6 months after the visit.
  • Grant will only include economy return airfare, visa fee, insurance, registration fees, accommodation and a daily allowance of USD 30 up to a maximum limit of USD 3500.
  • All papers resulting directly from the visit should carry an acknowledgment of the LK Domain Registry Grant. The text may be worded as follows “The author acknowledges the support received from the LK Domain Registry in publishing this paper.”

To apply for a Visiting Professor Grant download an application here

Download

Success Stories

Aloka

Aloka Fernando

BSc (Hons) in Engineering, BCS-UK currently is conducting her post-graduate research at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Moratuwa


I have altogether work experience of twelve years, in both the IT industry and academia. My ongoing research is to improve low-resource Neural Machine Translation by means of data augmentation. I have worked on data augmentation techniques such as synthetic parallel sentence generation and parallel sentence mining. Further, I have contributed to developing linguistic tools and resources specific to the Sinhala language… Read More

puruthiran

Peranantham Uruthiran

BSc (Jaffna), MSc in IT (UCSC), MSc in CS (AIT, Thailand) Academic Staff of the Department of Software Technology, University of Vocational Technology


I, Peranantham Uruthiran, was given the Professor V.K. Samaranayake conference grant award which was really a strong support factor in influencing my research career as a Machine Learning and Multimedia Data Analysis. It granted me financial support to present my research paper at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences (AiDAS2019). This was technically co-sponsored by the IEEE… Read More

Shyama

Shyama Wilson

Lecturer, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Computer Science and Informatics, Uva Wellassa University, Badulla, BCS(Hons), University of Ruhuna, Matara, MPhil(Reading), University of Colombo School of Computing


I am Shyama Wilson, a lecturer at Uva Wellassa University in Badulla and an MPhil candidate at the University of Colombo School of Computing. My MPhil was totally self-funded. However, it was a great blessing for me to be awarded the Professor V.K. Samaranayake Conference Grant, which enabled me to publish a book chapter entitled “Ontology Quality Evaluation Methodology”… Read More

Chirath

Chirath Hettiarachchi

BSc (Hons) and MSc (Research) from the University of Moratuwa, current PhD student at the Australian National University


I was very fortunate to receive the Professor V.K. Samaranayake conference grant, which supported me in attending the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Conference (AIME) held in Poland in 2019. The grant covered all my expenses, including the conference registration, accommodation, and airfare. This gave me a golden opportunity to present my MSc (Research)… Read More

Sulochana

Dr. Sulochana Sooriyaarachchi

Senior Lecture, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Moratuwa


I am a senior lecture in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa. I am the founder and the leader of the IntelliSense Lab in the department currently handling grants worth around Rs. 50 million, and a research team of around 10 engineers and postgraduate researchers. I conduct research and product development in collaboration with industry and multidisciplinary academics in the areas of Robotics, and IoT… Read More

Peramunugamage_Anuradha

Anuradha Peramunugamage

Programmer cum System Analyst, Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa,


I, Anuradha Peramunugamage, was awarded a travel grant by Professor VK Samaranayake twice to attend international conferences in Greece and Dubai. It covered all of my expenses, including the conference registration fee, airline tickets, visa fees, and lodging. The grant application process is straightforward and painless for the applicant, and I received all funds prior to traveling. I funded my MPhil entirely on my own,… Read More

Instructions for Applying for a Grant :

  • Completed applications (.doc, .pdf) with scanned versions of supporting documents (.pdf, .jpg, .gif, .png) should be emailed as a compressed archive (.zip, .rar) to grants@domains.lk
  • Application should be completed and sent in either DOC or PDF format.
  • All documents within the compressed archive should be named as follows: ”granttype_initials_surname_documenttype.***”granttype = workshop, conference, publication, top-up, short-stay initials = your initials without separation by periods. e.g.: ALN instead of A.L.N.surname = your surname or family name document type = application, attachment (with a number for multiple attachments), proof (for studentship)
  • The naming convention for compressed archive should be “granttype_initials_surname.zip”
  • Scanned documents should be sent in either pdf(preferred) or jpg format.
  • Grantees are responsible for obtaining foreign currency. If, for any reason, the grantee is unable to obtain foreign currency, he/she shall promptly reimburse any amounts received to the Registry.
  • Applications may be fully funded, partially funded, or rejected at the discretion of the grant panel and LK Domain Registry Management.