[q1w2]

Asking someone with a mature career to formally return to academia seems like a non-starter.

In such a case he'd need to pay more money and spend even more time - when all he wants to do is work on this one particular problem.

[R0b0t1]

I know, that's why I'm not asking him to do that. It's just instead of giving him money what he really needs is an opportunity to speak with professionals. The issue is a typical academic career path is usually the only way to speak to those people.