Research performance is recognized as one of the most critical indices for the evaluation of a research institute. However, very few previous scientific studies have focused on the factors affecting a science research institutes research performance in Sri Lanka. The study focusses to identify whether the research performance of research institutions coming under the State Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational Education, and Research & Innovation is affected by individual and institutional characteristics. Purpose The study is to identify the research performance of research institutions is affected by individual and institutional characteristics Design/Methodology/Approach Primary & secondary data has been predominately used in order to address the research objectives. The research is conducted perusing the recent and major Journals and articles that are published in reliable, high quality Journals on the captioned subject. The data concerning the research performance of academics has been extracted from the questionnaire, NIFS Research Repository, Annual Reports and from NASTEC reports. This quantitative study conducted using a deductive approach through a slightly adopted version of an already validated and reliability checked questionnaire Findings Individual characteristics and institutional characteristics were significantly correlated with the research performance (r=0.356, r=0.568 respectively). Of all variables, institutional characteristics had the strongest positive correlation where it could be used as a significant predictor (R2AD= 0.320) for the research performance of research institutions.