SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute) is a nonprofit, independent research firm that provides a broad spectrum of basic and applied research and consulting services to business and government clients throughout the world.  SRI was organized in 1946 under the auspices of Stanford University to provide a West Coast center where research and consulting services could be performed for industry and the public sector.  Today, SRI is a separate corporation chartered by the state of California, with its own full-time staff and facilities.

SRI’s headquarters, principal offices, and laboratories are in Menlo Park, California, a Silicon Valley community about 35 miles south of San Francisco and a few miles from the Stanford University campus.  Regional offices and laboratories are also maintained in other regions of the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. 
 

SRI employs a staff of more than 2,000 representing over 100 different disciplines.  The institute’s fields of professional expertise include economics, management, public policy, strategic planning and innovation, training and education, engineering, computer sciences, physical and life sci¬ences, and health and social systems.  Each year, SRI serves more than 2,000 clients around the world.  At any given time, approximately 1,000 research and consulting projects may be under way, and more than 75% of SRI’s business comes from repeat clients.

What sets SRI apart from most research and consulting organizations is our ability to harness a diversity of expertise to meet the needs of each project.  Those researchers whose training and experience are most appropriate work together on the problem under the direction of a project leader. Thus, researchers from more than one division frequently pool their expertise to match a particular client’s needs.  Typically, our research programs are distinguished from those conducted by universities by being less theoretical and more directly oriented to the immediate problems of a client.  At the same time, professional competence and innovativeness are maintained at high levels.  Flexibility, responsiveness to client needs, and high standards of technical and scientific competence mark SRI's approach to applied research.

SRI has been working very closely with Information International and INMA in the Arabian Peninsula since 1999 and they complemented each other through their projects, in reviving, expanding and developing economic opportunities in Lebanon, using effective and reliable research methods.

Tourism websites constructed by INMA and SRI: www.destinationlebanon.com and www.lebanonmaps.net in partnership with Ministry of Tourism.