Commissioner's Fellowship Program

The FDA offers a two-year Fellowship Program, which provides an opportunity for health professionals and scientists to receive training and experience at the FDA. Fellows will train at FDA's new state-of-the-art White Oak campus in Silver Spring, Maryland or at other FDA facilities. Salaries are extremely competitive, and travel funds are available to attend scientific meetings.

Preceptors and Coursework

The Fellowship Program combines rigorous didactic coursework with the development of a regulatory science research project.  Under the guidance of an FDA senior scientist Preceptor committed to mentoring, Fellows will explore a specific aspect of FDA regulatory science. This experience can be in a biology, physics or engineering lab, in a clinical review team, in biostatistics, informatics, epidemiology, risk analysis or other aspects of FDA science. 

To learn more about the proposed projects, please visit the Preceptor page.

The coursework is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the science behind regulatory review, encompassing the activities of the FDA across foods, drugs, devices, biologics, and cosmetics. Coursework during the two years includes graduate level public policy, FDA law, epidemiology, clinical trials and design, and statistics. 

Please visit our coursework page for more information.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must have a Doctoral level degree (M.D., D.O., D.V.M., D.D.S., D.P.M., Pharm.D., or Ph.D.) to be eligible. Applicants with a Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline will also be considered. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals of the U.S., or have been admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence before the program start date. Applicants cannot be current FDA employees or FDA contractors (such as ORISE fellows).

Benefits of Working at the FDA

We offer an excellent benefits package including health insurance, retirement, and paid vacation leave.

Key Dates

February – April – Applications Accepted 

July – Interviews

July – August - Applicants Notified of Their Standing 

October – Program Start Date