Tanzania's newly elected president, Jakaya Kikwete, has pledged to invest heavily in scientific training, research and development to overcome years of neglect for the field. Kikwete told SciDev.Net on the eve of the election (13 December) that the US$600,000 research budget allocated to the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology was "a joke". He commented that the sum might only be enough to properly fund a single large research project.