Introduction to the Federal Work Setting: Part I
One of the biggest challenges for bioscientists interested in working in the government setting is being familiar with the distinct process of job application, the branches and institutes of government science, and the stew of acronyms thrown around by government employees. For example, permanent government employees are known as “full-time employees” or FTEs, and those that perform essential work even when the government is shut down due to budgetary deadlock in the Congress are called “excepted individuals”. For the past several years a new budget was never approved by Congress, which led to a “continuing resolution” or CR maintaining funding of various government agencies at their prior approved level. In a series of articles I will describe the major government departments, agencies, institutes, and centers where bioscience Ph.D.’s typically find employment in this sector.
The Executive Branches of the U.S. Government
The U.S. executive branch contains 14 departments (https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/executive-branch), including Health and Human Services (HHS), Agriculture (USDA), Commerce, Defense (DOD), Education, Energy (DOE), Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior (DOI), Justice (DOJ), Labor, State, Transportation (DOT), Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. Aside from HHS and the USDA, several other executive departments are also employers of bioscientists. The U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) is part of Commerce. The Forest Service (FS), the National Park Service (NPS), and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are part of Interior. The State Department has embedded scientists who act as non-partisan advisors to the Legislative Branch. Several agencies are independent of any executive department, such as the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Smithsonian Institution (SI), and the National Zoo (NZ). The National Institutes of Health (NIH),the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are some of the branches of HHS. Future installments of this series will discuss job opportunities at these various agencies in greater detail and how to search on the federal jobs website (www.USAJOBS.gov), but we will begin by focusing on the structure of the NIH.
The NIH
There are 27 institutes and centers that compose the NIH (https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/list-nih-institutes-centers-offices). Many scientists are familiar with the NIH, but they may not realize that in addition to its institutes located on the Bethesda campus that there are several institutes with campuses located elsewhere, including the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) offices in Baltimore MD and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Hamilton MT. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has its entire campus in Research Triangle Park NC, physically adjacent to the research campus of the EPA on the other side of Discovery Lake. NIH also includes the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), the NIH Clinical Center (CC), and the Fogarty International Center (FIC), to name a few.
Each of the NIH institutes has a different structure, but many have a directory branch (DIR) that oversees its intramural and extramural programs. The intramural program has scientific branches with principal investigators (PIs) that manage a laboratory staff of 4-8 people composed of staff scientists, biologists, and three types of trainees (visiting fellows [VFs], intramural research training associates [IRTAs], and research fellows [RFs]). VFs (non-US citizens) and IRTAs (U.S. citizens) are in the period of <5 years of postdoctoral training. RFs are more senior postdocs, are limited in number, and often represent a mechanism for IRTAs to continue to work beyond their allotted limit to complete specific studies or to compete for transitional awards (e.g., the K99/R00 and Stadtman awards). Biologists are FTEs that perform a significant portion of the scientific benchwork of the intramural programs and who often have Master’s degrees (analogous to technicians in academia). Staff scientists are analogous to research faculty in academia. Unlike PIs, staff scientists don’t compete for tenure but have contracts that are reviewed every four years. Typically staff scientists are employed by the branch chiefs who need assistance managing their research program due to their other administrative duties. PIs are typically selected among faculty previously tenured outside NIH or the top 5% of extramural and intramural postdocs. Funding to PIs and their staff, typically requested through a brief internal submission, is awarded by the scientific director (SD) on behalf of the priorities set by the institute director’s strategic plan. In addition, every four years a review committee of extramural researchers reevaluates the performance of tenured PIs performance. Additional Ph.D. positions on the intramural side are represented by core facilities managers.
The advantages of these positions are the security of research funding, the degree of intellectual freedom, experienced staff scientists who are committed solely to bench research, and the opportunity to commit one’s time effort without the need to teach or perform academic service, such as sitting on committees. The disadvantages are that one is limited to a staff <8 persons, less opportunity to mentor postbac and graduate students, and the research program can be stymied by the politics of the federal budget. The NIH budget has seen meager inflation-adjusted growth since the end of the Great Recession (2008-2010) leading to accelerated retirement of senior staff, fewer tenure awardees, and hiring freezes or slow-downs. However, bipartisan support for NIH has prevented a significant loss of funding unlike other agencies.
On the extramural side, each institute employs a staff of program officers (POs), program analysts (PAs), and health science administrators (HSAs) (detailed in future installments in this series) that manage the overall direction of the grants or requests for application (RFAs) under the oversight of their scientific advisory panel. Some institutes also have a publications office that produces a news magazine centered on institute affairs, such as the NIEHS Environmental Factor.
In addition, the NIH has a component involved in trainee affairs called the Office of Intramural Trainee Education (OITE) ? headed by Dr. Sharon Milgram ? that is dedicated to helping trainees prepare for various post-training career paths, including non-traditional ones. Due to the distance from Bethesda, NIEHS has a smaller separate office called the Office of Fellows Career Development (OFCD) headed by Dr. Tammy Collins. Both offices have annual career symposia (https://www.training.nih.gov/nih_career_symposium) that present panels on a wide range of science careers and do allow extramural trainees to attend. The OITE employs a staff of eight scientists in the Career Services Center who act as career advisors/counselors. For more information on employment at OITE refer to https://www.training.nih.gov/staff.