I know most of use the conventional means of talking at meetings, writing, phoning and emailing one another to try and set up research collaborations, but what if you are new in your field? What if you cant afford to travel to all the big international meetings?

Perhaps people may me a little shy of posting their initial research idea on a public forum such as this, but they could at least post something along the lines of...

"We are starting a project to look at the modulation of expression levels of protein X and family members in response to abuse of drug Y. We would like to establish a collaboration with a group with a strong background in the microarray field as our own institution does not have this resourse. Could people please suggest groups suitable for this work or volunteer your group as potential collaborators on this work. Contact the me by private message...."

etc etc.

The idea is not perfect but perhaps others could chip in and state if this would be a worthwhile forum and ways to refine its potential structure.

We at Scientist Solutions very much like your forum suggestion and have added it to each category
replacing the forum
post your work/ideas
with
Post Ideas/Find Collaborator
thanks for your suggestions and participation,
Sincerely,
Scientist Solutions