Comments from Executive Branch Fellows

[back to fellowships home]

Quick Fellowship Links
Executive Branch Fellowships | Congressional Fellowships | Application Requirements
Current and Former Fellows | Washington Update

Executive Branch Fellows are involved with bridging research and policy through a variety of responsibilities. Past Fellows have worked on: informing programmatic and research funding, the Federal regulatory process, summarizing research for Congress, program evaluation for Federal programs, and other implementation aspects of Federal policymaking. For example, some Fellows’ placements have provided them with opportunities to contribute to study design for Congressionally mandated and Federally-funded studies, to write RFA’s and Program Announcements for Federal grant programs, and to contribute to grant review for extramural grant applications.

Please read what our former Executive Branch Fellows have said about:

Understanding the need for science in policymaking:

• “I have benefited from the SRCD fellowship program by learning how science influences policy, and vice versa…I have learned enough about how policy works to have an idea of how one gets agendas accomplished and “through the system.”
• “Thanks to this program, I… have a clearer idea now how policy makers can influence the direction of research. In fact, I was able to make my own influence felt by developing a new priority area for the program this year.”
• “It has been eye-opening to sit in the center of a conversation about what science is, and how it needs to be carried out, in order to provide evidence to education decision-makers. Without coming to Washington, I never would have understood how complex these relationships are.”

Developing knowledge and resources that can impact their career, whether they return to academia or continue to work in public policy:

• "As I continue to pursue my research interests, this Fellowship will shape how I conduct and disseminate research in that I now have the knowledge base and resources to aid me to produce research that has policy programmatic implications and impacts for children and families.”
• “As a result of the fellowship, I am open to more potential career directions and have had the opportunity to meet with many interesting and influential people in the field who bridge research and policy.”
• “This Fellowship has helped me to clarify the focus of the second half of my career. The ‘scientist as practitioner’ or ‘researcher as policy-maker’ models that seemed so elusive to me at the beginning of my Fellowship year seem to be goals that are much more realizable.”

The networks and relationships formed during the Fellowship:

• “Opportunities for learning about the relationship between research and policy have come not only through the specific activities in which I have participated, but also from the nurturing, collaborative, mentoring relationships with those who I have worked with closely in [the agency].”
• “I have been fortunate to make many contacts that will be valuable upon my return to full-time academia… I will carry forth this knowledge and utilize my contacts next year as I begin to work on … policy at the state level.”

Learning about the Federal administrative and grantmaking process as an “insider”:

• “Through the year my role has grown so that I now handle the majority of the administrative oversight of the grantees and the program, including writing the grant announcement… This has been instructive to me in that I now understand the inner workings of a Federal grants program and the process of developing and awarding grants.”
• “As a program officer I learned the importance of priorities and budgets and how to some degree they help dictate the science of an institution.”
• “My supervisors provided a supportive environment and a well-rounded program that really helped me understand the systems and processes within the [placement], as well as the role of Federal agencies, such as NIH, within the policy and research arenas.”