1985

• IPS Project located in the Ministry of Finance and Planning with a Resident Coordinator from the ISS, The Hague, with funding under Phase I of Sri Lanka-Netherlands Technical Cooperation project

1988

• IPS established under Act of Parliament No. 53 of 1988

1989

• Appointment of the Executive Director and Board of Governors
• Office premises shifted to the DFCC Building, Colombo 3

1990

• IPS comes into formal operation under the Ministry of Finance and Planning by Gazette Notification in April
• Commencement of IPS Phase II funding

1991

• Appointment of a new Resident Coordinator

1992

• Initiation of the IPS State of the Economy Report
• Initiation of macroeconomic data base
  

1993

• Initiation of the IPS Endowment Fund
• Introduction of the Senior Visiting Fellow and Project Internship programmes

1994

• Office premises relocated to St. Michael’s Road, Colombo 3
• Appointment of a new Executive Director in December

1995

• Introduction of a policy input-oriented monthly public seminar programme, and monthly in-house seminar programme
• Initiation of project work
• Initiation of IPS Health Policy Programme as an independent pilot project
• Introduction of a Manual of Operations
• First contribution to the Endowment Fund of C$ 1 million from the Government of Canada

1996

• First External Evaluation of the IPS
• MOUs with foreign universities for exchange programes initiated

1997

• Commencement of IPS Phase III funding
• Introduction of the IPS Annual Report
• Appointed as the focal point of the IOR-ARC academic group in Sri Lanka
• Appointed as the MIMAP project partner in Sri Lanka

1998

• Introduction of a monthly Book Review series
• Initiation of a Professorial Chair
• Appointed as the focal point of the SAARC Research Network

1999

• Donation of land by the Government of Sri Lanka for construction of the IPS Head Office
• Amendment to the IPS Act
• Endowment Fund Trust comes into operation
• Resident Coordinator position abolished in August
  

2000

• Launch of the South Asia Economic Journal, an international journal jointly with RIS India
• Partner Institution in Sri Lanka for the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS)
• IPS placed under Ministry of Industrial Development by Gazette Notificaiton in August

2001

• Commencement of IPS Phase IV Operation
• Core Research Programme and Research Units come into Operation
• Creation of new position of Director-Administration and Corporate Affairs and decentralization of administration functions
• IPS placed under Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation by Gazette Notification in December
• IPS public website launched
• IPS library intranet services launched

2002

• Creation of the Publications and Communications Unit and initiation of in- house desktop publishing
• Production of Sri Lanka National Health Accounts
• Initiation of in-house web development activities
• IPS added on another location and took on rent a building in close proximity to the IPS Head Office, this location was known as the IPS Annex
• Re-engineering the Finance and Administration function and computerizing the manual accounting, budgeting and project management processes

2003

• Creation of the Information Systems Unit
• Launch of redesigned IPS public website
• Introduction of a Medical Health Insurance Scheme for staff

2004

• Initiation of an intranet IPS Corporate Website and increasing the IPS Intranet Bandwidth to 512 kbps
• IPS placed under the Ministry of Advanced Technology and National Enterprise Development by Gazette Notification in November
• Implementation of the IPS corporate plan
• IPS appointed to the Chair for the Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group

2005

• Creation of new position of Deputy Director
• Initiated translation of IPS publications into Sinhala and Tamil languages
• Compilation of input-output tables for Sri Lanka
• IPS placed under the Ministry of Plan Implementation by Gazette Notification in December
• Organized the first major international conference with more than 150 foreign participants (Poverty and Economic Policy [PEP] General Meeting)

2006

• IPS signs an agreement with The Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation for the Dutch contribution for the construction of a New IPS Office Building
• Vesting order issued for land allocated to the IPS
• Appointment of a new Chairman, and members to the Board of Governors of the IPS
• Gazetted under the Presidential Secretariat
• Creation of the centralized Economic Research Databases, and implementation in the institutional corporate web
• The IPS became self -financing with the ending of Dutch Funding in June 2006
• Initiation of policy advocacy work (on effective service delivery by Provincial Councils)

2007

• Employee Performance Development Review was introduced to staff
• Laying the foundation stone for the IPS Head Office
• Calling bids and selecting the contractor for the new Head Office
• Chairman and Executive Director invited to serve in the National Economic Council under H.E. the President

2008

• Initiating the first South Asia Economic Summit
• Initiating the first India-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IL-CEPA) public dialogue

2009

• Initiating the IPS Blog
• Launching of the first Sri Lanka Migration Outlook report
• Launching of the South Asia Migration Commission
• Launching the first Sri Lanka Climate Change report and the corresponding website
• Appointed as the academic focal point for the Asian Cooperation Dialogue

2010

• Shifting to IPS new IPS Head Office
• Appointment of a new Chairman and members to the Board of Governors
• Gazetted under Ministry of Research & Technology
• Formation of an Audit Committee
• Winner of the Think Tank Initiative (TTI) grant (four year core funding under IDRC)
• Investing in a new IT Network