Expert Network Calls for Scientists: How GLG Works and What It Pays
Consultants and investors will pay you by the hour to explain your own field on a phone call. It is the most natural side income a working scientist can have, and the least understood. Here is how it works, from a member.
What the work actually is
A management consultant has three weeks to advise a client on whether to buy a cryo-EM service company. An investor is deciding between two structural biology platforms. A pharma strategy team wants to know how academic labs really choose between a Krios and a Glacios. None of them can learn the field in time, so they pay someone who already knows it to talk for an hour. Expert networks are the matchmakers, and GLG is the largest: it describes its network as over 900,000 senior industry experts who get paid for sharing their expertise with clients, most often in the form of one-hour phone calls.
You are not selling data or writing reports. You are answering questions about how your corner of science works in practice, at the level of a well-informed colleague. For a structural biologist that means instrument choices, workflow bottlenecks, vendor reputations, what a facility charges and why, and where the field is going. The calls are recorded for compliance, scheduled around your calendar, and paid at the hourly rate you specified when you joined.
How to join
GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group)
Apply to the network →The application takes a couple of minutes: your background, your areas of expertise and the hourly rate you want. If you are accepted into the network you complete a short compliance module and then receive project requests matched to your profile. You are paid at the rate you specified for any time you spend with clients. There is no fee to join and no minimum commitment.
Other expert networks exist (AlphaSights, Guidepoint, Third Bridge, Coleman among them) and many experts belong to several. GLG is the one I can describe from direct experience.
Setting your rate
You choose the number, and it matters more than anything else on your profile. When I joined, GLG's onboarding team told me the average expert rate was around $150 an hour. Senior industry scientists and facility directors charge well above that. A postdoc quoting $400 will rarely be picked, because the client sees the rate when choosing between experts, but a postdoc quoting $60 leaves money on the table for knowledge a consultant genuinely cannot get elsewhere. Start near the average, then raise it once you have a few completed calls and a sense of how often you are requested. The rate is yours to change.
The honest downsides
Call volume is the whole game and you do not control it. Requests arrive when someone happens to be researching your niche, so a specialist can have a busy month and then silence. Each request comes with a short screening questionnaire that is unpaid, and being selected is not guaranteed even when you answer it. Academics get fewer calls than people inside companies, because most clients are trying to understand markets rather than methods. Compliance is strict and should be: you may not share confidential or unpublished information from any current or former employer, you must stay inside your institution's outside-consulting policy, and calls are recorded. Used as an occasional, well-paid conversation about work you already understand, it is among the best side income a scientist can have. Budgeted as regular income, it will disappoint.
How this compares with AI training work
The other side income scientists ask about is grading and writing training data for AI labs, covered in the AI training guide. That work pays a lower hourly rate but offers far more hours, on your own schedule, and does not depend on anyone needing your niche this month. Expert calls pay more per hour, arrive unpredictably, and use your knowledge rather than your critical reading. They are complementary, and plenty of scientists do both. If you are between positions, pair either with the live job board and the talent network.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an expert network, and what does GLG actually pay for?
An expert network connects people who need to understand a field quickly, most often consultants, investors and corporate strategy teams, with people who work in that field. GLG describes itself as a network of over 900,000 senior industry experts who are paid for sharing their expertise with clients, most often in the form of one-hour phone calls. You are paid for the time you spend on those calls at the hourly rate you set when you join.
How much can a scientist charge per hour?
You specify your own hourly rate during onboarding and can change it later. When I joined, GLG's onboarding team told me the average expert rate was around $150 an hour. Senior industry scientists charge more; early-career academics tend to sit near or below the average. Setting a rate well above your seniority mostly means fewer calls, since clients see the rate when choosing between experts.
How often will I actually get calls?
It depends entirely on whether someone is researching your niche that month. A cryo-EM specialist might get several requests when a vendor or CRO is being evaluated and then nothing for weeks. Treat it as occasional income, not a schedule. Responding quickly to requests and filling in the short screening questions promptly raises how often you are chosen.
Can I do this as a postdoc or university employee?
Usually yes, as outside consulting on your own time, but check your institution's outside-activity and consulting policies first, and any funder rules that cap outside work. The compliance rules are strict on both sides: you may not share confidential or unpublished information from your current or former employers, and GLG's own compliance training covers what you can and cannot discuss.
What is the application like?
The application takes a couple of minutes: your professional background, areas of expertise and the hourly rate you want. GLG reviews it and, if you are accepted into the network, you complete a short compliance module and then start receiving project requests that match your profile.