The Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) is Tanzania’s national parastatal body for science, technology and innovation — combining, in a single institution, the roles that in some countries are split between a research regulator and a research-funding council. COSTECH registers and clears research activity carried out in Tanzania, advises government on science and technology policy, and administers the National Fund for the Advancement of Science and Technology (NFAST), the statutory fund created under the same enabling Act to finance research and technology-development work through grants and loans. This guide covers what COSTECH is and does, how NFAST funding works, what research registration and clearance involves for institutions and international collaborators, and how Tanzania’s model compares to the other national science councils in the region already covered on this site.
What Is COSTECH?
COSTECH was established by an Act of the National Assembly of Tanzania in 1986 — the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology Act, 1986 (Act No. 7 of 1986) — as successor to the earlier Tanzania National Scientific Research Council (UTAFITI). It operates as a parastatal organisation and is the Government of Tanzania’s principal advisory body on all matters relating to scientific research, technology development and innovation, currently sitting under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (its supervising ministry has been renamed more than once over the decades, so administrators should confirm the current line ministry directly with COSTECH rather than relying on an older document).
Structurally, COSTECH follows a pattern seen elsewhere in the region: it is both regulator and funder. Kenya’s National Research Fund and Uganda’s National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) combine the same two functions — national research clearance/registration on one side, competitive grant administration on the other — rather than splitting them across separate agencies the way, for example, the UK separates its funding councils from research-ethics regulation.
COSTECH’s Core Functions
Under its enabling Act, COSTECH’s mandate includes:
- Research registration and clearance. COSTECH registers scientific research institutions operating in Tanzania and is responsible for registering and clearing research activities conducted in the country, including work involving foreign institutions or foreign investigators.
- Policy coordination. Preparing and reviewing national science, technology and innovation (STI) programmes, and coordinating and monitoring research, technology-development and innovation activity across sectors.
- Government advisory role. Advising the Government of Tanzania on priority areas for scientific research and on the allocation of research funding.
- Information dissemination. Acquiring, storing and disseminating scientific and technological information, and promoting the transfer of technology and indigenous innovation.
Because COSTECH sits across both the regulatory and funding sides of the research lifecycle, an institution’s relationship with it is rarely limited to a single transaction — the same body that clears a research project for legal conduct in Tanzania may also be the one an investigator later applies to for project financing.
Research Registration and Clearance
Research conducted in Tanzania — whether by a Tanzanian institution, a foreign university, or an international collaboration — generally needs to be registered with, and cleared by, COSTECH before fieldwork begins. In practice this typically runs alongside institutional-level review: human-subjects or biomedical research still requires ethical clearance from an accredited institutional Research Ethics Committee (comparable in function to what many countries call an Institutional Review Board), in addition to the national-level clearance COSTECH administers. Foreign researchers and institutions typically need a Tanzanian collaborating institution as part of this process. Because specific forms, fees and timelines are periodically updated, research administrators preparing a Tanzania-based project should confirm the current registration and clearance requirements directly with COSTECH (costech.or.tz) rather than relying on a cached checklist — this is standard practice for national research-clearance regimes generally, not specific to Tanzania.
NFAST: Financing Research and Technology Development
Part V of the 1986 Act established the National Fund for the Advancement of Science and Technology (NFAST), with the statutory purpose of financing research and technology development by way of grant or loan. NFAST is COSTECH’s funding arm — the mechanism through which COSTECH’s advisory role in “allocation of research funds” is actually operationalised as money reaching researchers and innovators, distinct from COSTECH’s registration and clearance function described above.
NFAST grant-making runs against COSTECH’s Research and Innovation Grants Manual and is directed toward science, technology and innovation (STI), research and development, and technology-transfer activities carried out by scientists and institutions within Tanzania’s nationally prioritised research areas. Historically, NFAST support was oriented primarily toward researchers; more recently, with capacity-building support from programmes such as the Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF), COSTECH has worked to strengthen NFAST so that it also serves innovators and early-stage technology developers, not only traditional research grantees.
Separately from NFAST’s grant and loan financing, COSTECH also operates a Credit Guarantee Scheme (run through a dedicated platform, cgs.costech.or.tz) that provides loan guarantees to innovators and small enterprises commercialising research and innovation outputs. This is a distinct facility from NFAST itself — administrators should not assume a NFAST grant and a COSTECH credit guarantee are the same instrument, or that eligibility for one implies eligibility for the other.
CASRAI has not been able to independently verify current NFAST budget figures, award sizes, or open call windows from public documentation with sufficient confidence to state them here; these details change with each funding cycle and should be confirmed directly against COSTECH’s own published grant calls and the Research and Innovation Grants Manual rather than assumed from secondary sources.
COSTECH and NFAST in the Regional Context
Tanzania’s combined regulator-and-funder model is not unique in Sub-Saharan Africa. This site also covers Kenya’s National Research Fund, Uganda’s UNCST, and Zambia’s NSTC and National Research Fund — each a national science council that, like COSTECH, pairs research clearance/registration authority with grant administration under one roof, generally reporting to a science and technology or education ministry rather than sitting as an independent research council in the UKRI or NSF sense. Multi-country pan-African funding and capacity-building initiatives — for example the African Academy of Sciences’ AESA platform and development funders such as Canada’s IDRC — frequently work alongside, rather than instead of, national bodies like COSTECH, so an institution pursuing Tanzania-based research funding may encounter both layers depending on the programme.
Practical Implications for Research Administrators
- Budget time for the registration/clearance step. National research clearance is typically a prerequisite to fieldwork, not a parallel or optional process, so it belongs on the project timeline alongside (not after) any institutional ethics review.
- Identify a Tanzanian institutional partner early. Foreign-led projects generally need a local collaborating institution as part of registration and clearance.
- Don’t conflate NFAST and the Credit Guarantee Scheme. One is grant/loan financing for research and technology development; the other is a loan-guarantee facility for commercialisation. Confirm which instrument a specific opportunity actually is before budgeting around it.
- Verify current terms directly with COSTECH. Grant manuals, priority research areas, and call windows are periodically revised; treat costech.or.tz and COSTECH’s own published guidance as the authoritative, current source rather than any single secondary summary, including this one.
- Track COSTECH’s dual role in compliance planning. Because the same body can be both the project’s national regulator and its funder, reporting obligations may run to COSTECH on both fronts — research-conduct compliance and grant/financial reporting — and these should be tracked as related but separate obligations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is COSTECH a funding agency or a research regulator?
Both. COSTECH registers and clears research conducted in Tanzania (a regulatory function) and, through NFAST, finances research and technology-development activity by grant or loan (a funding function). The two functions sit in the same institution rather than being split across separate bodies.
What is NFAST?
The National Fund for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a statutory fund established under Part V of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology Act, 1986, whose purpose is financing research and technology development by way of grant or loan. COSTECH administers it against a Research and Innovation Grants Manual.
Do foreign researchers or institutions need COSTECH clearance to work in Tanzania?
Generally yes — research conducted in Tanzania, including by foreign institutions or in international collaborations, is expected to go through COSTECH’s national research registration and clearance process, typically alongside a Tanzanian collaborating institution and, for human-subjects research, institutional ethics review.
How does COSTECH compare to Kenya’s National Research Fund or Uganda’s UNCST?
Structurally similarly: all three combine national research clearance/registration authority with grant-making in a single agency, a common pattern among national science councils in the region, though each operates under its own enabling legislation, funding manual and priority-area list.
Where can I find current NFAST grant calls and eligibility criteria?
Directly from COSTECH (costech.or.tz) and its Research and Innovation Grants Manual. Call windows, priority areas and eligibility criteria change between funding cycles, so this guide intentionally does not restate figures that would go stale — check the primary source before applying or advising a researcher.
