Back in October, I submitted my application to become an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF). AAAS is the largest science society in the world with the objective to advance effective science policies for the betterment of mankind.
Last week, I was privileged to interview as a finalist for the 2020-2021 class of fellows. If extended an offer, finalists are placed throughout the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches to provide scientific expertise to the offices as well as a get a crash-course in science policy and government work in Washington, DC.
In the semi-finalist stage, applicants are asked to write a policy briefing memo assignment on a topic given by an interview committee. The topic assigned to my group was as follows:
“During your fellowship your host agency’s budget is increased by 15%. Prepare a briefing memo for your agency director (pick one: DHS, USAID, State, NASA, FDA, EPA) with recommendations on what your agency’s funding priorities should be in this fiscal and political environment.”
The Memo Exercise
We were advised to consider geopolitical realities, staffing, capacity building, creating new versus enhancing existing programs, awarding grants/contracts, etc., and to explain and provide our rationale for initiatives we propose including the “issues and factors considered in arriving to the conclusions.”
Semi-finalists have 10 days to submit the memo. For any semi-finalists reading this blog post, I advise seeking out other fellows for advice and/or any friends or acquaintances that have experience writing one-page policy memos. When I wrote my first draft, I was very, very, ambitious, and did not consider the political realities of what I proposed.
Additionally, the committee grading your policy memo are going to be understanding of what is proposed. Obviously, writing a recommendation to an agency director about a 15% budget increase is a massive undertaking. For instance, that’s an ~$8 billion dollar budget increase for the State Department, which can be spent in a lot of places. The goal of this exercise is for the committee to gain an understanding of your thinking on science policy matters and make sure you can defend your recommendations, as you do in your interview two weeks later.
Below is my policy briefing memo. I chose to recommend pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response via the State Department through interagency efforts (i.e. CDC, USAID) on the One Health Initiative. I really enjoyed the process and was elated to find out I was selected to be a finalist.