Marine research stations that host foreign universities for a fee

A first step

Email the marine biology departments of five universities abroad that run field courses in the tropics, describing the coastline you can reach, the boat and the rooms you can offer, and a price per student per week. Ask which month they would come and how many students. Replies with dates and numbers, or reasons for saying no, tell you what a station must have before it is built.

Who pays first

A foreign university field-course leader who needs a safe, organised base on a tropical coast and has a budget per student.

What leaves today

Foreign researchers study tropical seas elsewhere, and the fees, the data and the scientific reputation build up in other countries.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, which Japan and Korea buy
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster