Add the Payap University partnership: joint student programmes

Payap also wants to work closely with the project on new student
programmes: audio engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT, business
administration and more.

New docs/payap-partnership.md: why it fits (mastering/cutting engineers
are the hardest hires; Payap has music, IT, business, communication arts,
an English-language International College and pharmacy labs; the plant has
a lathe, production data and a real factory application), programme areas
mapped to the docs they draw on, and what it changes: a reason to bring
the cutting room (roadmap item 27) forward, a cutting engineer before the
students, lacquer and stylus cost of teaching, pre-release security for
customer audio, student access and safety, IT work on staging only, the
link to the Payap land, BOI R&D merit. Suggested form: MOU, internships,
short certificate courses first, degree tracks later; what to settle in
writing and questions for the next meeting.

Links from README (bullet, layout), site-candidates, roadmap item 27, the
supplier map's open training item and the BOI open items.

README.md

@@ -144,6 +144,10 @@ The detail lives in dedicated documents:
   side (the Mueang Chi lease, the Northern Region Industrial Estate, and
   Payap University's offer of land next to a pharmaceutical facility under
   construction) and what has to be checked before any of them is chosen
+- [Payap University partnership](docs/payap-partnership.md): joint student
+  programmes in audio engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT and
+  business built around the plant, what they change in the plan (cutting
+  room earlier, pre-release security, student access) and what to agree
 - [Project scale](docs/scale.md): rough numbers for everything on one page:
   output capacity, building area, land, electrical demand, solar and
   storage, steam and fuel, headcount, and money cross-references
@@ -189,6 +193,7 @@ docs/
 ├── crane-workshop-tours.md Overhead crane, workshop, visitor corridor
 ├── digital-factory.md     Data platform, NixOS/Clan fleet, acquisition, app
 ├── facility-security.md   Security, HVAC, fire and life safety, compliance
+├── payap-partnership.md   Joint student programmes with Payap University
 ├── plant-operation.html   Animated plant overview (simulated SCADA)
 ├── process-flow.md        Audio file to delivered record, with all checks
 ├── production-timeline.md Order turnaround, stage by stage

docs/boi.md

@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ project timeline, ahead of equipment contracts.
 - Confirm current NEC/Lamphun area add-ons
 - Engage a BOI-registered consultant to structure the application so the
   solar, automation, and R&D measures stack on the base promotion
+- Check whether R&D contracted with Payap University and the joint student
+  programmes ([Payap partnership](payap-partnership.md)) count toward the
+  R&D merit or a skills-development measure
 - Keep any future label/content/retail arm in a separate entity: media and
   service activities carry different (and sometimes Thai-ownership)
   conditions, and mixing them muddies a clean manufacturing application

docs/payap-partnership.md

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# Payap University Partnership
+
+Two strands came out of the October 2026 conversations with Payap
+University: land it would lease to the project (see
+[site candidates](site-candidates.md)), and close collaboration on **new
+student programmes built around the plant**: audio engineering (mastering
+and lathe cutting), IT, business administration and more. This page holds
+the programme strand. Nothing is agreed yet; scope, form and money are
+open.
+
+## Why it fits
+
+- **The hardest hires are the programme subjects.** Mastering and cutting
+  engineers are an open item in the
+  [supplier map](suppliers/equipment-suppliers.md), and the plant needs one
+  or two at maturity ([scale](scale.md)). A cutting and mastering programme
+  is a hiring pipeline for the plant, and for the region.
+- **Payap brings what a factory does not have**: a College of Music,
+  IT, business administration and communication arts faculties, an
+  International College teaching in English, and a Faculty of Pharmacy
+  with analytical labs.
+- **The plant brings what a university cannot**: a working cutting lathe,
+  real production data and a factory application with real users.
+
+## Programme areas against the plant
+
+| Area | What students work on | Where it lives in this repo |
+|---|---|---|
+| Mastering | Mastering for the physical limits of the groove, side length against format, technical QA, the approval workflow with the artist | [process flow](process-flow.md) stages 1 and 2, the audio checks on the [artist platform](artist-platform.md) |
+| Lathe cutting | Test cuts and lacquers, groove microscopy, dead-wax scribing, pitch and depth automation (Sillitoe Space / Time Control or the Agnew route) | [vendor landscape](suppliers/vendor-landscape.md), part marking in [quality automation](quality-automation.md) |
+| IT | The factory application (`cnx-factory`), data acquisition, traceability, the artist platform, operations on the NixOS fleet | [digital factory](digital-factory.md), [traceability](traceability.md), [artist platform](artist-platform.md) |
+| Business administration | Costing and the price calculator, production planning and lead times, export sales and logistics, fan-funded campaigns, BOI compliance | [revenue model](finance/revenue-model.md), [production timeline](production-timeline.md), [BOI](boi.md) |
+| To discuss | Music (recordings for the programme and the platform), communication arts (label and artist marketing, plant tours), science and pharmacy (the PVC material lab, galvanics chemistry) | [quality automation](quality-automation.md), [galvanics and stamper prep](equipment/galvanics.md) |
+
+## What it changes in the plan
+
+- **The cutting room moves up the agenda.** The [roadmap](roadmap.md) puts
+  mastering and cutting last (item 27), earlier only if title-services
+  demand shows up. A teaching programme is a second reason to bring it
+  forward, as a room that trains students and cuts customer lacquers. The
+  teacher comes before the students: an experienced cutting engineer, or
+  the lathe vendor's training, has to be in place first. Student test cuts
+  consume lacquer blanks and styli, a running cost to price into the
+  programme.
+- **Pre-release security.** Labels ask how unreleased audio is protected.
+  Teaching uses own or licensed material (Poy Records, recordings from
+  Payap's College of Music); customer masters only under NDA and the room
+  access control in [facility security](facility-security.md).
+- **Safety and access.** Students on the plant floor fall under the
+  [worker safety](worker-safety.md) programme; the galvanics clean room is
+  seen through the visitor corridor window, not entered
+  ([crane, workshop and tours](crane-workshop-tours.md)). IT students work
+  on a staging copy of the factory application and on exported data, never
+  with write access to production systems.
+- **Location.** On Payap land the plant and the classroom share a campus;
+  at Mueang Chi they are ~35 km apart. The programme works better with the
+  Payap site but need not depend on it.
+- **BOI.** R&D contracted with a Thai university and training cooperation
+  may count toward the R&D merit measure; an open item in [BOI](boi.md).
+
+## Form, to agree with Payap
+
+Start small and formal: a memorandum of understanding, internships and
+work-integrated learning, and jointly taught short certificate courses in
+mastering and lathe cutting. Degree tracks come later, because new degree
+programmes go through the university's own curriculum approval and
+national accreditation; Payap knows those lead times.
+
+To settle in writing: who teaches what; who owns equipment used for
+teaching; lathe and room time for teaching against production; fees and
+how they are shared; who owns student work that uses plant data; and
+confidentiality.
+
+**Questions for the next meeting:** which faculties and programmes, on what
+timeline; what Payap expects from CNX (instructors, equipment, internships,
+funding); whether the programmes are tied to the land lease.

docs/roadmap.md

@@ -123,7 +123,8 @@ These three run in parallel and gate everything downstream:
 25. Full metrology stack and the sampled audio QC station
 26. Biomass boiler, fed by the by-then-mature coppice plus regional fuel
 27. Mastering and cutting room (can move earlier if title-services demand
-    shows up in Phase 4)
+    shows up in Phase 4, or to host the joint audio engineering programme
+    with Payap University, see [Payap partnership](payap-partnership.md))
 
 ## Standing principle
 

docs/site-candidates.md

@@ -47,12 +47,13 @@ pharmaceutical facility on the offered land is to be confirmed.
   team, customers and the airport than Mueang Chi. The
   [visitor corridor](crane-workshop-tours.md), the
   [artist platform](artist-platform.md) and hiring all work better in town.
-- **A partner, not only a landlord.** Payap has a College of Music,
-  communication arts and business faculties (artists, mastering and
-  cutting trainees, the platform's first users) and a Faculty of Pharmacy
-  with analytical labs that could back the PVC material lab
-  ([quality automation](quality-automation.md)). A formal university
-  collaboration is also the kind of R&D and skills cooperation the
+- **A partner, not only a landlord.** Payap also wants to build new
+  student programmes with us in audio engineering (mastering, lathe
+  cutting), IT and business administration; that strand has its own page,
+  [Payap partnership](payap-partnership.md). Its Faculty of Pharmacy has
+  analytical labs that could back the PVC material lab
+  ([quality automation](quality-automation.md)), and a formal university
+  collaboration is the kind of R&D and skills cooperation the
   [BOI](boi.md) merit measures reward; confirm which measure applies.
 - **Production is already being built there.** If the pharmaceutical
   facility has factory permission, the land may already have a path

docs/suppliers/equipment-suppliers.md

@@ -194,3 +194,6 @@ site systems are compiled in
 
 Open: mastering/cutting engineer training, galvanics process expertise
 (hardest skill to hire), local contractors for building and utilities.
+Payap University wants to build joint student programmes in audio
+engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT and business with the plant, a
+possible training pipeline ([Payap partnership](../payap-partnership.md)).