Strengthening Science Collaboration Between COSTECH and NRF

The partnership between the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and NRF has been a cornerstone of success in Africa’s research and innovation partnerships.

Over the years, this collaboration has driven joint research funding calls and cooperation in the context of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) and the Global Research Council (GRC), including engagement in multilateral research programmes like the O.R. Tambo Africa Research Chairs Initiative (ORTARChI); the Covid-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund (CARGF); and the Africa-Japan Collaborative Research Programme on Environmental Sciences (AJ CORE).

On the sidelines of the 2024 SGCI and GRC meetings taking place in Botswana, the two funding agencies held a bilateral meeting led by the heads of the research councils, Dr Fulufhelo Nelwamondo (NRF) and Dr Amos Nungu (COSTECH).

This meeting follows the South Africa-Tanzania Joint Committee Meeting held in September 2024 where both councils apprised the line ministries of their areas of collaboration. The councils’ bilateral meeting agreed that both public funders would embark on a mapping exercise of their collaborative activities to identify further priority areas of focus, and that the process towards signing an overarching MoU in 2025 would commence.