11^th Annual Research Symposium - 2021 on “Innovation Geared Building Resilience” organized by National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) was successfully started on 14^th December 2021 at the Waters Edge Hotel, Colombo. This graceful event was hosted as a hybrid form event where limited physical participation of researchers, disaster management practitioners, policy makers and eminent experts from local and international institutions and many others were witness the event through the online form. The event provided an excellent platform to have discussions, exchange ideas and share experience.

Gen. Kamal Gunaratne (Retd), Secretary to the Ministry of Defence participated as the chief guest of this event.

During the Inaugural Session, Dr. (Eng.) Asiri Karunawardena, Director General of NBRO delivered the welcome address. Thereafter, Mr. Abdur Rahim Siddiqui, Country Director, World Food Program (WFP) addressed the audience. 

A special launching event was held to launch the following items;

• NBRO Symposium Proceedings Book titled "Technical Guidelines for Disaster Resilient Construction"
• Manual for Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting and web-based Calculator
• Living lab concept, pilot for Kalutara District using Mobilize Platform
• Demarcation of Landslide impact zone using Red and yellow zone concept - Pilot project, Kegalle district
• Mobile application on real time landslide early warnings dissemination

The keynote speaker Eng. Mike Stannard, Specialist in Building Codes, New Zealand, delivered an eye-opening keynote address on “Building Codes for Resilient Built Environment”. Afterwards the symposium proceeded with a panel discussion on “Building Resilience” moderated by the Prof. Chintha Jayasinghe, Senior Professor, University of Moratuwa and participated by the panelists Prof. Tilak Hewawasam, Professor in Geology, University of Peradeniya, Dr. Kushan Wijesundara, Senior Lecturer, University of Peradeniya, Mrs. Kanthi De Silva, Former Deputy Director General, Central Environment Authority, Mr. Toru Koike, Team Leader, Project SABO, JICA.

The first day of the symposium was structured with a technical session titled “INVESTING ON RESILIENT ENVIRONMENT” and chaired by Prof. Nawagamuwa, Professor, University of Moratuwa.

NBRO wishes to thank the resource persons, the distinguished invitees and the physical and online participants who made this event so successful to the end. The second day of the symposium will be on 15^th December 2021 at the Auditorium of State Ministry of National Security and Disaster Management (Disaster Management Division), Vidya Mawatha Colombo 07. The second day will be followed by a Keynote speech, a panel discussion and two technical sessions.