Research & roadmap
Science built
for deployment.
Every project has a 12-month output mandate. Results, papers, and field reports shared with communities, partners, and funders who act on them.
Year 1 roadmap
Four quarters, one mission
Q1 · Months 1–3
Foundation
- Legal registration via BRELA Tanzania
- MOU negotiations with UDSM & SUA
- Founding team recruitment
- Facility — Morogoro region
Q2 · Months 4–6
Funding
- Submit 3 grant applications
- Gates Foundation Grand Challenges LOIs
- Corporate partnership meetings
- Yara International & Engie Africa
Q3 · Months 7–9
Operations
- Pilot lab opens
- Crop trials — Dodoma region
- Soil microbiome baseline begins
- Off-grid energy feasibility surveys
Q4 · Months 10–12
Output
- First peer-reviewed paper submitted
- Public research report published
- Year 2 funding pipeline ≥ $500K
- Biotech & Space departments scoped
Year 1 departments
What we are actually doing
Department 01
Agriculture & Food Sciences
Drought-resistant crop varietal trials in Dodoma and Morogoro. Soil microbiome baseline study across three farming zones. Research targets RUTF ingredient cost reduction and staple crop biofortification for improved mineral absorption in partnership with Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Year 1 outputs
- → 1 peer-reviewed paper
- → Agronomic field report
- → Varietal recommendation guide
- → Open soil microbiome dataset
Department 02
Energy Systems
Off-grid solar and battery sizing methodology for rural Tanzania. Mini-grid feasibility studies for three pilot communities. Research designed to directly inform deployment decisions by rural electrification programs and development finance institutions in East Africa.
Year 1 outputs
- → Technical methodology report
- → 1 conference paper
- → 3-community feasibility brief
Department 03
Digital & AI Lab
African crop monitoring dataset — open-source, built specifically for East African growing conditions. Climate-adaptive AI advisory model for smallholder farmers. All models and datasets published openly under ZYRA's IP framework.
Year 1 outputs
- → Open-source crop dataset
- → Smallholder AI model v0.1
- → 1 working paper
Funding strategy
Grant targets — Year 1
Priority 1
Gates Foundation Grand Challenges
LOI submitted April 2026 · $100K Phase 1
Priority 2
African Development Bank — FAPA
Application Q2 2026 · $150K–$300K
Priority 3
Wellcome Trust — Discovery Research
Application Q2 2026 · Africa focus
Priority 4
USAID Feed the Future
Innovation Labs · Tanzania focus country
Priority 5
Swedish Sida
Development research · East Africa
About ZYRA
Built here.
Felt everywhere.
Founded in Dar es Salaam by a Tanzanian systems designer with a background in biomedical engineering. The institution that should have existed twenty years ago.
Why we exist
The problem ZYRA solves
The research gap
Sub-Saharan Africa holds 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land. The science to address food insecurity exists — scattered across underfunded departments and foreign papers written about Africa, not by Africa.
The energy deficit
East Africa's energy gap costs an estimated 2–4% of GDP annually. Off-grid communities lack localised energy science that would justify investment. ZYRA produces that science.
The institutional void
IHI is world-class in health. There is no equivalent institution for agriculture, energy, and food systems in East Africa. ZYRA fills that gap — with a commercialisation mandate IHI was never designed to have.
The brain drain
Tanzania's best scientists leave because the institutions that would keep them don't yet exist. ZYRA's founding rule: every researcher who gets a foreign offer gets a counter. Unconditional.
The founder
ZF
Zaburi Frolian
Founder & Director, ZYRA Research Institute
Zaburi is a 27-year-old Tanzanian builder and product designer based in Dar es Salaam. With a background in biomedical engineering and systems design, he has led design for technology companies across East Africa, Silicon Valley, and internationally — including a $40K MRR proptech platform, a Silicon Valley AI legal assistant, and a multi-modal travel super-app with 2,000+ post-launch downloads.
He brings to ZYRA what research institutions rarely have: the ability to build from zero. He understands science well enough to have intelligent conversations with researchers — and understands design, communication, and institutional architecture well enough to build the infrastructure around them.
Biomedical Engineering
Product Design
Systems Thinking
Institutional Builder
East Africa
Dar es Salaam
Founding team
Four roles building ZYRA
01
Lab Director
PhD · Published research required
Owns the research agenda. Scientific face of ZYRA at conferences, with funders, and university partners. Leads all grant applications.
02
Lead Agronomist
Soil science or crop agronomy
Leads Agriculture department. Crop trials in Dodoma, soil microbiome baseline study, 1 peer-reviewed paper in Year 1.
03
Energy Engineer
Engineering · Renewable energy
Leads Energy department. Off-grid solar sizing, mini-grid feasibility for 3 communities, 1 technical report in Year 1.
04
Operations & Partnerships
Admin · Grants · Public presence
Lab administration, grant calendar, corporate partnerships, university MOU logistics with UDSM and SUA.