"We work to ensure African researchers have the strategic support, funding pathways, and global visibility their work deserves."

Zoë Boshoff

Founder & Director

My unlikely path to research development

Like many in this space, I didn’t plan to end up here.

My background is in English Literature, Social Anthropology, and Human Geography. I spent over a decade working in conservation and climate change across the non-profit and research sectors before founding Flametree Fundraising, a strategy consultancy, and later, the African Research Funding Accelerator.

These initiatives are designed with one goal in mind: to strengthen and elevate Africa’s research ecosystem – in South Africa and across the continent.

Why I’m committed to African researchers

African researchers operate in one of the most competitive, under-resourced environments in the world, yet they consistently produce world-class, transformative work. They juggle heavy teaching loads, navigate institutional bureaucracy, and lead ambitious research agendas, often with minimal support, yet they are some of the most brilliant, resilient minds on the planet.

These extroidinary thinkers and innovators deserve systems and tools that allow them to thrive in this setting.

How the Accelerator was born

Five years into consulting, I hit a bottleneck: the demand for fundraising and strategy support from research institutions far outpaced what I could deliver one-on-one.

I needed a way to scale, making the tools I’d developed accessible to more researchers, on their terms. That’s how the African Research Funding Accelerator was born: combining high-impact strategy coaching with flexible, online capacity-building resources.

Over time, the Accelerator evolved. Our Strategy Phase grew into a Visibility Phase, in partnership with Alacia Armstrong and the Wonder and Co team. Together, we craft science communications and branding that make our alumni irresistible to funders.

Now, we’ve launched a third phase: Sustainability, which supports researchers in building long-term funding pipelines and institutional resilience. Our vision is to address the needs of our clients in the most enjoyable, streamlined way possible.

The team that powers it all

While I started this journey, the true power of the Accelerator lies in the people who’ve joined me.

We work from a shared set of values that shape everything we do:

Friendship: we support and uplift one another, and celebrate each other’s wins.
Excellence: we deliver radical support and exceptional experiences for extraordinary people.
Playfulness: : we bring colour, humour, and joy to serious work.
Empathy: we see researchers as whole humans. Our strategies honour their time, values, and wellbeing.

This work is personal. It’s about lifting people whose ideas could change the world, and building the friendships, tools, and visibility to make that change possible.

Ready to see our impact?

Discover how we've helped African researchers secure funding, build visibility, and drive transformative change across the continent.