11 January 2021
Science communication, policy, and outreach jobs/fellowships 2021
Posted by Shane Hanlon
By Shane M Hanlon
Shane giving a presentation at a science careers session at the Ocean Science Meeting, 2020. Credit: Leslie Marasco
As someone who transitioned out of academia (mostly), I get asked this question a lot: Where should I look for scicomm/policy jobs and fellowships? Well, I have some suggestions.
My most surprising (to the questioner) advice is to use generic job-search sites like Indeed and Monster. Folks posting science-related jobs use these sites just as any other profession does. The trick is getting the search terms. When I was job searching prior to my role with AGU I mostly used indeed. Among my search terms were: science, communication, policy, environmental, ecology, biology, STEM, education, outreach. When it came to position titles, that was all over the map and included descriptors like specialist, coordinator, manager, program/project manager, and more. I fine-tuned my search terms and eventually ended up with a process the returned mostly relevant results (using “environmental” got me lots of custodial positions). There are some really great online resources as well in scicomm/sciopol space:
- #SciCommJob & #SciPolJob on Twitter
- The SciComm Board
- Science Communication Jobs on Facebook
- Use LinkedIn to get personalized job opps
- Where to Find Science Communication Jobs
I led with jobs because the second question I get asked most frequently is, “Do I need to get a fellowship prior to a job if I’m coming straight out of academia?” The answer is no. While it is a common path to bridge the gap between academia and the non-academic sector, it by no means is required. Having said that…there are lots of options out there. I’ve been compiling a list here and there but I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel so here are some good aggregated lists/sites I’ve come across:
- THE LIST of U.S. Science & Technology Policy Fellowships
- FASEB Science/Health Policy Fellowship Board
- Where to Find Science Communication Internships (Note: “Internship” is not a bad word denoting inexperience. Positions are paid and a great opp to get experience in a new area/field).
- Transitioning out of Academia (an earlier version of this current post by me)
Finally, below is a list of fellowships that I hadn’t seen in the aggregate:
- Maryland Sea Grant State Science Policy Fellowships
- COMPASS Policy Engagement Fellow
- NAS Gulf Research Program’s Science Policy Fellowship
- The Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellowship
- The Science and Technology Policy Institute Science Policy Fellowship
- Research!America Science Policy Fellowship
- National Marine Fisheries Service – Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship
- J. Philip Keillor Flood Resilience – Wisconsin Sea Grant Fellowship
- Hellman Science and Technology Policy Fellowship
- ARVO Science Communication Training Fellowship
To be clear, this is not an exhaustive list. I do hope that this is a helpful start for those of you who have never gone through this process before but are looking for a career in science communication/policy. And (and I mean this), if you every have any questions about transitioning out of academia, please feel free to contact me.
–Shane M Hanlon is Program Manager of AGU’s Sharing Science program. Find him on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
P.S. I wanted to add that I often talk to folks about the “transferable skillset”, i.e. the skills we gain as researchers that are taken for granted in academia but greatly valued in the broader workforce. I came across this article, Transferable skills for industry, that dives into this perfectly.
The Plainspoken Scientist is the science communication blog of AGU’s Sharing Science program. With this blog, we wish to showcase creative and effective science communication via multiple mediums and modes.