Federation of American Scientists (FAS) · Washington, DC, United States
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;
An understanding of how to apply evidence to real-world policy questions (e.g., funding, evaluation, incentives, research practice);
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
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Applicants must be able to work in the United States. Applicants must be able to work in-person at agency offices based in the DC metropolitan area. Applicants must be able to attend in-person professional development and team building activities beyond the residency into their official placement.
Compensation
Compensation is $174,000 per year, pro-rated monthly, inclusive of health or living expenses, plus $1,500 for travel and $1,500 for professional development funds.
Application
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 your application.