SCOR received funds from the Rockefeller Foundation to hold a Team Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center on 26 August 26-1 September 1998, on the topic of “Graduate Education in Oceanography in Developing Countries as a Means to Understand Global Environmental Problems” (see report). Meeting participants recommended the development of multinational graduate schools in (1) Central and South America, (2) Subsaharan Africa, (3) South Asia, and (4) Southeast Asia. The regional graduate schools would be overseen by a team of reviewers from SCOR and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. In later years, SCOR evolved the concept to be called Regional Graduate Networks of Oceanography to encompass the idea of sharing of institutional resources within regions.
Regional training has been developed in South America and Subsaharan Africa:
South America–The Austral Summer Institute (ASI) was the first realization of the RGSO/RGNO concept. Starting in 2001, the University of Concepcion in Chile hosted instructors and students from around the world to learn together. The topic of the ASI differs each year.
Subsaharan Africa–The Agouron Institute supports Research Discovery Camps at the University of Namibia and the Namibian National Marine Information and Research Centre (NatMIRC) since 2014. In 2018, the Simons Foundation joined the Agouron Institute in funding the Research Discovery Camps. These events bring together lecturers and students from around the world for about four weeks to learn together through lectures, laboratory work, and field experiences, including on the NatMIRC research vessel MIRABILIS. Each student is involved in a research project, with the results presented at the end of the Research Camp at an open symposium and in online seminars.