In November 1997, a delegation from Sida (Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency) visited Sri Lanka and several universities to study the feasibility of providing funding for establishment of campus networks and Internet access. The delegation stated that their main motivation is to provide networking facilities to locations where they had ongoing Sida funded projects (i.e. Engineering and Science faculties and the Library). Proposals and statements of requirements were submitted by all universities to the delegation during their visit. At a meeting held with the delegation at the Vice-chancellors office, Dr.K.B.N. Ratnayake, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, was entrusted with the task of preparing the proposal for the campus network.

In April 1998, the consultant in the delegation, Mr. Mats Brunell, submitted his report to Sida, and subsequently the LEARN (Lanka Educational and Research Network) management committee was requested to submit a joint proposal.

In June 1998, the Sida approved funding for a number of IT related projects which includes the establishment of a campus network and faculty level networks at the faculties of Engineering and Science, Main Library and the Senate Building in our University. Although the original proposal included only fiber-optic backbone connections to faculties other than Science and Engineering, it was considered necessary to provide at least one connection to each department in those faculties.