Metascience Fellowship

The federal research enterprise stands at a rare inflection point, creating an opening to radically rethink how science is funded, organized, and conducted. U.S. research agencies have a strong appetite to harness metascience to serve as the engine for that rethinking effort, with NSF and NIH both recently creating metascience units to test and evaluate research funding mechanisms. Metascience – also known as the “science of science” or “research on research” – uses the scientific method to study the scientific enterprise, seeking to understand how research is funded, conducted, and published, with the aim of making it more reliable, efficient, and useful.

Metascience can provide the evidence base that the science ecosystem needs to move toward systematic, empirically-grounded change. And as AI-accelerated research reshapes what is possible across the enterprise, a robust metascientific agenda ensures that adoption of new platforms, tools, and methods, especially those fundamentally expanding data access and information sharing, is guided by evidence rather than hype, helping agencies make smarter bets during a period of transition. Integrating metascience into formal research funding priorities, policy experiments, and strategic partnerships requires not just buy-in but an engine for injecting capacity at a scale and velocity that can be truly transformative.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is seeking to recruit three full-time fellows to embed in federal research agencies for one year. With the need for evidence-based, nonpartisan science policy leadership more urgent than ever, fellows will serve a vital role in innovating and accelerating American scientific enterprise.

Each Metascience Fellow will serve a pre-service residency followed by a one-year federal government placement at an agency such as NSF or DOE. Finalists will undergo a mutual placement process with the federal agencies before selection is finalized.

During the pre-service residency, fellows will be based at FAS for intensive training on topics including metascience, policy entrepreneurship, and other capacity development areas designed to empower fellows to drive change within the federal government. Fellows will also contribute their expertise to ongoing aligned projects at FAS during their residency. Fellows will be required to attend in-person professional development and team building activities beyond the residency into their official placement.

The one year placement may be extended further contingent on funding and performance. The positions will primarily be in-person at agency offices based in the DC metropolitan area.

FAS Metascience Fellows will be expected to start at FAS no later than January 4, 2027.

What You’ll Be Doing

Metascience Fellows are embedded full-time within their government agencies and can expect to:

Support federal agency leaders to advance evidence-driven strategies for reforming federal research institutions, funding, and agenda-setting.
Generate and translate evidence on grantmaking, portfolio design, peer review, open science, and/or research governance, helping agencies understand what actually works across portfolios. This may include using modeling and simulation or data science to analyze past or current grantmaking practices.
Identify areas where evidence- and data-based approaches could be additive, subsequently designing and implementing experiments with built-in evaluation capacity to capture successes and failures.
Conduct stakeholder management, including producing memos or other background materials to inform agency leadership in engagements with interagency and external stakeholders.
Spearhead coordination across offices or interagency initiatives around metascience, including collaborating with metascience units at counterpart agencies.
Deliver hands-on technical expertise where it’s needed most.

What We are Looking For

Experience working in or with a research agency (e.g., NIH, NSF, DOE, ARPA-style programs), with thoughts for how to deploy policy ideas within such institutions;
Experience working at the intersection of science policy, evidence, and government operations; and
An understanding of how to apply evidence to real-world policy questions (e.g., funding, evaluation, incentives, research practice).

Applications will be evaluated holistically. We are looking for applicants who demonstrate:

Experience with research and analysis, and an ability to translate evidence and analysis into practical, implementable solutions.
Experience with federal grantmaking, peer review, open science or research administration processes.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience briefing and communicating with senior decision makers, and experience in stakeholder management.
Comfort operating in ambiguity and shaping new policy areas.

Eligibility Requirements

Mid- to senior-career professional, with an advanced degree or equivalent work experience in a scientific, engineering, or public policy field (e.g., Science & Technology Studies, Cognitive Social Science, Science Policy, Energy Policy, Economics, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Statistics, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, etc.).
Current federal employees are ineligible to apply.
Candidates must be U.S. citizens.

Application Materials and Process

Applications are due by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on November 9, 2026. Late applications will not be reviewed. Please note that we are only accepting applications to this position submitted via this platform. When applying, you will be redirected to our application platform and will need to create an account to submit an application.

To apply you must provide:

Curriculum vitae that demonstrates you have the attributes described above in the “What we are looking for” section;
Responses to the following prompts. Responses to each prompt are limited to 300 words or less:
- Please describe your past experience translating research, evidence, or technical analysis into a practical policy proposal, pilot, implementation plan, or institutional reform.
- What experience do you have with federal research funding agencies or funding mechanisms, such as NSF, NIH, DOE, grants, peer review, portfolio design, or research administration?
- Where do you think metascience can have the greatest practical impact on federal science policy over the next few years? Which reforms feel most actionable now?

Compensation

Fellows will receive compensation of $174,000 per year that will be pro-rated monthly. Fellows are not eligible to receive employer-sponsored benefits; the listed compensation is inclusive of any health or living expenses. Fellows will also receive $1,500 for travel and $1,500 for professional development funds over the course of the fellowship.

Who is FAS?

Does FAS sound like an organization that you would be energized to join? Is it aligned to your values?

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) takes quite seriously our role as a beacon and voice for the science community.

FAS has a rich history: after the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a group of atomic researchers – deeply concerned about the use of science for malice – created an organization committed to using science and technology to benefit humanity.

The group they created – the Federation of Atomic Scientists – soon became the Federation of American Scientists in recognition of the hundreds of scientists across diverse disciplines who joined together to speak with one voice for the betterment of the world.

Today, we are a group of entrepreneurial, intrepid changemakers, forging a better future for all through the nexus of science, technology and talent. We value equity, inclusion, and transparency. As a collective, we are building an organization focused on being impact-driven, customer-focused, and growth-oriented as a force for good in the world.

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