Federation of American Scientists

FAS is a catalytic organization that exists to drive the science and technology community forward. In FY24 (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024), FAS will continue to work across the federal government, philanthropy, universities, and other organizations to set and advance agendas in each of our policy areas, create better connectivity across our work, and increase opportunities to support and partner across the science and technology ecosystem to drive meaningful change. FAS will continue to advance progress and action in priority domains – nuclear weapons, energy, climate and environment, environmental justice, entrepreneurship, education equity and access, and science and technology policy – delivering on work secured and strategically expanding within and across our program verticals. FAS is a dynamic organization that drives change through three core activities: policy entrepreneurship, talent innovation, and agency partnerships. The way in which we uncover opportunities, design interventions, share ideas and collaborate to drive action across these three core activities is what differentiates us in the marketplace. The domains (i.e., verticals) in which we operate are designed to be flexible and fluid to accommodate changes in legislative or administrative leadership and changes in science and technology policy priorities. A commitment to ongoing learning, opportunity spotting, adaptation, agility and drive towards action is our unique value proposition. Landmark legislation has generated once in a generation federal investment in the science and technology policy field. FAS will continue to be diligent in spotting and building opportunities to drive action, regardless of political environment, that specifically focus on ensuring that the CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and other important pieces of legislation are well implemented and executed at the federal level and within other facets of the ecosystem including local and state government, the policy and advocacy community and academia.

FAS envisions a world where science, technology, ideas and talent are deployed to solve the biggest challenges of our time.

Goal One: FAS will deliver impact through high-quality work that we have contracted for on-time and within budget while simultaneously expanding the use of our three core activities within existing verticals.

Goal Two: FAS will build and strengthen our organizational capacity to implement and drive change across a broad range of topics where FAS can serve as an accelerant or force-multiplier.

Goal Three: FAS will amplify our message to key audiences prioritizing policymakers, funders, partners, and the S&T community, as well as those whose voices are traditionally excluded.

At the beginning of 2022, a portion of FAS staff participated in The Management Center’s “Working for Change” training course, which is specifically designed to help social change organizations develop and sustain equitable employee practices.

One instance of our mobilization efforts comes in the arena of innovation in education. For example, FAS has locked arms with organizations across the nonprofit, private and philanthropic sectors to launch the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI). As one example of its success, FAS worked through ALI to lead 25 key education stakeholders in a letter of support calling on Congress to increase spending on federal education R&D. The ensuing House Appropriations proposal included marked budget increases for several offices that our coalition recommended for increased funding, including the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in STEM, the Education Innovation and Research program, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

FAS has doubled since last year, and that growth has significantly increased FAS’ caliber. We have also added new members to our executive team including a Chief Financial Officer and a Chief Growth Officer. Some organizations have extensive expertise on a topic or deep proficiency in an approach. In a growing range of policy topics, we have both. Our new teammates bring proficiency and experience that strengthen our policy portfolio, widen our capacity for change, and allows us to deliver on our theory of policy entrepreneurship. We are lucky that such deeply motivated and talented individuals seek out FAS to hone that eagerness into a disciplined edge to lead future policy leaders and policy efforts. And as our team has grown, so have our efforts to build an inclusive and diverse workforce. With support from our newly established DEI Committee, we have instituted a set of equitable hiring processes for Team FAS and our Impact Fellowship placements. We are exceeding our commitments to gender equality for featured speakers on panels. And, we are formulating stronger commitments to promote racial equity through our internal hiring processes as well as our policy development and implementation strategy. However, we are at the early stages of this journey, and approach our DEI strategy with humility and an awareness of the critical work that still needs to be done.