For experts

Make your expertise easier to reach, on your terms.

Extreme frontal macro of a fly face with pale compound eyes and dense golden-brown hairs.

Entomology is a small world, but it is not always an easy one to enter.

Students, early career researchers, recorders, naturalists, and curious people often know they need help. What they do not know is who to ask, whether the question is appropriate, or whether they are about to bother the wrong person.

The Ommatidium Project is meant to make that first step easier.

If you take part, you are not signing up to be flooded with emails. You are giving the project enough information to route the right questions to the right person. Sometimes that will be you. Sometimes it will not. The point is to make the hidden map of expertise a little less hidden.

You decide what fits.

Tell us what you can help with, what you would rather avoid, how many requests you are comfortable receiving, and how visible you want to be. You can be known only to us for routing, reachable through the project but not browsable, or listed more openly as a named expert.

We default to the most private option. We never make you more visible than you have chosen.

Think of the useful connection that happens at a conference: the right person, met at the right moment, almost by chance. This project tries to make that kind of connection less random, especially for people who are new, nervous, outside the usual networks, or simply unsure where to begin.

You do not have to be in the spotlight. You do not have to take on much. A few useful replies can matter.

What you control:

You choose what kinds of questions can come to you.
You tell us what to route around you.
You set a monthly limit.
You can pause whenever you need to.
You decide how findable you are.
You can step back at any time.

What you would actually see

Two fictional examples of what taking part looks like.

Example introduction

An introduction, sent through the project

From The Ommatidium Project

Subject An introduction: Jamie would value your help with ground beetles

Hi Dr Okafor,

I’m Maya, a volunteer with the Ommatidium Project.

Jamie got in touch through our site. They are based in Cardiff, are just starting out, and are looking for advice on ground beetles and getting into museum collections.

If this looks like a fit, a short reply would mean a lot. I have connected you both, so a reply here reaches Jamie directly.

With thanks,

Maya

You are not listed by default, and your email is not simply published. When a match is appropriate, the project can send one introduction that connects both people. This is a fictional example.

What you get back

When you help, the project can give you a private impact report. It records the kind of support you provided without identifying requesters. You can use it for a CV, annual review, promotion file, grant return, outreach record, or your own documentation. This is not about turning you into a public help desk. It is about making good expertise easier to find, while keeping you in control.

See an example impact report

Join as an expert contact