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Policy & Advocacy
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Policy & Advocacy
Addressing sexual harassment in STEM
Guest post by members of the Early Career Scientist Policy Subcommittee Emily Lescak, Giovanna Collu, and Lacy Barton Recent high-profile cases of sexual misconduct in science have revealed a pervasive undercurrent of harassment in the STEM workplace. How should scientists, institutions, and funding agencies respond? Given the importance of this issue, we wanted to provide…
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Policy & Advocacy
Research!America Science Policy Fellowship: An Inside View
This post is part of the Early Career Scientist Policy Subcommittee’s series on science policy fellowships. Research!America sponsors a 3– 6-month science policy fellowship for recent PhD graduates. The Research!America alliance is made up of over 400 science organizations: from research institutions like Johns Hopkins to scientific societies like GSA to drug development companies like Merck.…
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Policy & Advocacy
The Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowships: an inside view
This post is part of the Early Career Scientist Policy Subcommittee’s series on science policy fellowships. The Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowship Program is an opportunity for recent graduate students to spend a year working at a state or federal agency in Alaska on projects at the intersection of marine science and policy. Fellows are…
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Policy & Advocacy
The Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship: an inside view
The Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program has provided fellows with a 12-week immersive science policy experience for 20 years. Based within the National Academies in Washington DC, Mirzayan alumni are now found throughout the science policy realm in the United States and abroad. We spoke to Ben Krinsky, PhD, a 2015…
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Policy & Advocacy
The AAAS Science & Technology Fellowships: an inside view
This post is part of the Early Career Scientist Policy Subcommittee’s series on science policy fellowships. You can also search for fellowship opportunities in the GSA Policy Fellowship Database. AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF) give scientists and engineers the opportunity to apply their knowledge and analytical skills to the policymaking process. These US-based fellowships…
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Policy & Advocacy
Why Ciliates? Making a video introduction to a model organism
Model organism researchers face shared challenges in communicating the value of their work. How do you get policymakers to fund research on a microscopic organism they’ve never heard of? How do you explain to the public why scientists spend time understanding yeast and frogs and flies? In 2015, the ciliate research community decided to invest…
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Policy & Advocacy
The Genetics and Public Policy Fellowship: an inside view
For early career geneticists who would like to transition to a policy career, the Genetics and Public Policy Fellowship provides a 16-month training experience designed to bridge the gap. This unique fellowship includes three rotations: time spent at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the executive branch, a staff position on Capitol Hill serving…
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Policy & Advocacy
The GSA Policy Fellowship Database: a searchable resource for scientists
Policy should be informed by scientific data. It’s critical that scientists are directly involved in ensuring policy decisions both reflect scientific knowledge and support innovation. For scientists interested in shaping public policy, there are many career options, including working for elected officials, government agencies, and nonprofits who advise on policy. However, PhD and postdoc training…
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Policy & Advocacy
Beyond the #GradTax: more tax proposals that threaten the scientific community
Guest post by the GSA Early Career Scientist Policy Subcommittee Scientific progress is at risk from proposed changes to the US tax code. These changes, proposed by both the House and Senate, threaten to constrict the supply of research labor and funding, the impact of which will be felt for generations. The scientific community has…
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Policy & Advocacy
Grad students save lives
On a spring day in 2006, I woke up from surgery to learn that I had an aggressive type of breast cancer that would require chemotherapy. I had been told I had a relatively benign diagnosis that was supposed to be cured by a mastectomy. It was devastating to realize that the surgery was not…
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Policy & Advocacy
Who would be hurt by higher taxes for graduate students? All of us.
What is #GradTax about? The US research enterprise is under threat by proposed tax changes that would make it difficult for all but the wealthiest students to undertake graduate training. Restricting access to advanced training would damage the nation’s ability to grow, innovate, discover new medicines, bring new technologies to market, and adapt to a…