PROJETiQ is the Global Islands Talent Circulation & Innovation Network: a digital platform, a physical hub and a not-for-profit governance body, built so that expertise earned in one island economy circulates across the island world instead of draining out of it.
Circulation is the mechanism. Innovation is the point.
We are building this from Seychelles, with the written support of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Trade and Investment, and in advanced discussion with Government on the programme’s governance framework.
Every island economy trains people who leave. The standard response is retention — incentives, bonds, appeals to loyalty — and on its own it has never been enough, because what drives departure is not disloyalty. It is the absence of anywhere to go next.
PROJETiQ treats this as an infrastructure problem rather than a talent problem. A qualification earned in one island economy should be recognised, portable and useful in another. A researcher should be able to spend a season working on a problem that matters and come back with the work, the network and the standing intact. None of that happens on its own. It requires a platform to match people to work, a physical place for the work to happen, and a governance body to hold the standards that make the qualification travel.
That is what is being built: three components, one instrument. The Platform circulates. The Hub hosts. The Network governs. The Platform is privately financed and the Hub sits on privately held land, so the model places no fiscal burden on the state that anchors it.
Skills shortages, expatriate dependence and a widening innovation gap are real, and every island government knows them well. What has been missing is the connective infrastructure that lets one island’s answer become another island’s resource — and the independent standard that makes such an exchange trustworthy.
Structured pathways that move island expertise across the island world, and bring external expertise in on terms set by the receiving economy. Brain circulation, not brain drain.
The infrastructure that lets researchers, entrepreneurs, institutions and policymakers find each other across basins — and start working on the problems that matter most.
The conditions for home-grown enterprise and research capacity — closing the gap small economies face in building competitive industries at scale.
The structure is deliberate. Standards, certification and mission sit in a not-for-profit body. Delivery and revenue sit in a separate commercial entity, operating at arm’s length under licence. The commercial entity cannot direct network policy — which means association with the network’s standards is not something a sponsor can buy.
Holds governance, standards, membership and mission. Governed by a multi-stakeholder board with regional representation. Accountable to public interest, with Seychelles Government policy sponsorship as the intended governance anchor.
Delivers under licence — platform subscriptions, certification, placement, advisory and hub operations. Generates the revenue that sustains the whole. Cannot set or influence network policy.
A privately owned twelve-acre site at Baie Lazare on Mahé, serviced and connected — purpose-built for residencies, applied research, co-working and neutral convening. Privately financed, on privately held land: no fiscal burden to Government.
PROJETiQ’s founding voices are senior figures in ocean science, water security, island economics and development policy, at institutions across four continents. They have joined in an individual capacity, not on behalf of their institutions.
They are not named here yet. The founding circle will be named when it is formally constituted and each member has agreed to be listed publicly.
That is a decision for them, not for us.
We start where island economies are already recognised for global leadership, not where they are assumed to need help.
Ocean science, fisheries and marine governance — where island credibility is highest.
Workforce upgrading and destination quality in the sector most island economies depend on.
Green skills, monitoring capability and climate-finance readiness.
Skills localisation and project execution quality, where cost overruns are structural.
Services exports, digital public infrastructure and market access beyond the domestic economy.
Seychelles is the anchor. The Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Trade and Investment has given the programme its written support, and discussions on the governance framework are advancing. The strategic case for the choice is straightforward.
Strong macroeconomic management, institutional stability and public financial systems that development partners already trust — built over decades.
Internationally recognised Blue Economy governance, and first in Africa on the African Development Bank’s Infrastructure Development Index — every year since the index began. A voice heard well beyond its size.
No territorial ambitions, no regional rivalries. Other nations engage with Seychelles without geopolitical anxiety — that's genuinely rare, and makes it an exceptionally valuable convening presence in any regional architecture.
Deep bilateral ties across Eastern & Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, and existing MoU frameworks to build on. This isn’t starting from scratch — it’s building on solid ground.
“… a Global Islands Talent Circulation and Innovation Network anchored in Seychelles and led by a Seychellois founding team.”
— Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Trade and Investment, Republic of Seychelles · Letter of Support, 13 July 2026
The network is global in design and is being built outward from where its anchor sits. That is a sequencing decision, not a hierarchy. The Caribbean and the Pacific are not a later phase of PROJETiQ — they are already present in its founding relationships.
The starting point is Seychelles, where the written support sits and the Hub site is owned and serviced. The Hub comes online first and the founding cohort follows in January 2027 — connecting skilled people with island institutions, supporting local enterprise, and building the research capacity the region needs to compete.
This is not a pilot. It is the first working instance of a model built to be repeated — and those who join here shape how the whole is designed and governed.
The network grows basin by basin, through the multilateral architecture island states already use — UN-OHRLLS and the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS, alongside the Commonwealth and the regional bodies of each basin. Small Island Developing States come first, and the wider island and ocean-dependent world with them.
Each new member and host relationship will be announced when it is concluded, and not before.
A network is not a list of countries. It is a shared standard: recognition that travels, and certification that means the same thing in Victoria as it does in Praia, Bridgetown or Port Vila — held by a governance body independent enough to be trusted with it.
That is the thing being built, and it is what the sequence is for.
Get in touch
Nichole Esparon
Founder & Chief Executive, PROJETiQ
Every enquiry is read by the founder. Whether you are a government, an institution, a researcher or a prospective partner — introduce yourself. Who you are, what you represent, and what draws you to the programme.
We reply personally to every genuine enquiry.
partnerships@projetiq.comConversations about sponsorship, laboratory and bench access, and hosted research residencies at the Hub are handled directly by the founder. Please write, and say briefly what you are looking for.
partnerships@projetiq.comAll enquiries go directly to Nichole Esparon, Founder & Chief Executive.
PROJETiQ Insights