Federation Of American Scientists

Special projects - fas believes that great ideas can originate from anyone. Often bringing these ideas to life requires a set business structure that bar many innovators and scientists from entry. Fas seeks to free up these policy-focused entrepreneurs with infrastructure and guidance through our fiscal sponsorship offering.

Science policy entrepreneurship and day one project - the goal of this work is to create innovative ideas that catalyze new ways of working or thinking across the federal government. In fy24, the team worked to deliver bold policy solutions, from diverse sources across the science and technology landscape, across broad issue spaces, from climate resilience to wildfire to evidence-based decision-making to bioeconomy. Fas also launched its day one 2025 campaign to source actionable and innovative policy ideas across priority topic areas in the lead up to the 2025 presidential transition.

Education and workforce - this team focuses on improving student outcomes and advancing our education system through increased r&d funding and leveraging evidence-based approaches. In fy23 and fy24 the team built a national coalition of organizations focused on ensuring that the education r&d infrastructure and agenda is community- and learner-centered, with an explicit focus on the needs of all-learners, educators, district, state and federal policymakers, families, and communities.

Energy - formerly fas' "innovation" work, in fy24 we noticed a need to focus on energy. In this fiscal year, fas has been working within the executive and legislative branches that govern doe to develop more effective and flexible hiring pathways, innovative and progressive research and development practices, and faster development and deployment of clean energy technologies - all in service of more effective implementation of clean energy policy.

Institutional initiatives - fas leverages its unrestricted resources to advance key strategic initiatives. These efforts range from managing and supporting fellowship programs to making strategic hires who are brought on board to lead or contribute to the development and implementation of new programs. By doing so, fas ensures that it remains agile and responsive to emerging opportunities aligned with its mission.

Global risk - in fy24, fas expanded the nuclear information project (nip) to a portfolio focused on global risk. During this time, the team has hired a new portfolio director who brings 30+ years of executive branch leadership in the nuclear policy space. In addition to providing the public with the most reliable and agreed upon public data of nuclear weapons, the team added a focus on enhancing policymakers' understanding of the broad implications of ai and nuclear weapon-related issues, and developing a suite of policy, regulatory, and global policy initiatives; and advancing and expanding the work of the nuclear information project to enhance transparency and public knowledge, develop and promote policy recommendations, and catalyze global action to responsibly reduce the numbers and role of nuclear weapons worldwide.

Emerging technology - as our work in "technology and innovation" grew, we created two separate portfolios - emerging technology and energy. In fy24, the emerging technology portfolio worked to set the u.s. As a global leader in the research, development, and commercialization of critical and emerging technologies, with an r&d ecosystem that supports and activates industry, academia, and government partners to innovate for societal benefits, while actively mitigating their ethical and security risks.