Law and Policy Fellowship

The Cicero Institute seeks exceptional graduate students and early-career scholars committed to rigorous public policy research. Law & Policy Fellows are researchers who believe in the American experiment; carry with them the spirit of the entrepreneurial, courageous visionaries who founded the United States; and take research design seriously. They are deliberate about identification, proactive in uncovering system levers or building novel data, and intellectually honest in stress-testing their own results. The Law and Policy Fellowship is designed to become a premier pipeline for serious public policy research. Fellows join an intellectual network committed to improving state capacity, strengthening institutional accountability, and advancing transparent, severely tested reform.

Cicero Research currently focuses its policy reform research on four key areas: Education and Workforce, Healthcare, Public Safety and Homelessness, and Government Efficiency. We are staffed by thinkers with deep experience in government, legislation and the law, technology, and entrepreneurship who look for shortcomings in areas that sometimes only government policy can address, whether it is recidivism rates in prisons, education and workforce outcomes, or healthcare costs and access. We develop and fight for bold policies at the state level that restore liberty, accountability, and transparency in American governance.

Law & Policy Fellows advance Cicero’s mission by strengthening the empirical and conceptual foundations of reform. The goal is credible knowledge creation: producing findings we can responsibly share with policymakers and stakeholders so they can act on the best available evidence. Law & Policy Fellows take an active role in the policy process by crafting innovative policy ideas and helping turn those ideas into effective legislation at the state level. In addition to a $1,500 monthly stipend, Cicero Law & Policy Fellows will be invited to attend virtual roundtables and networking events. These events will give Law & Policy Fellows access to the Cicero leadership, affiliated scholars, and members of our board throughout the term. The annual in-person retreat is reserved for fellows invited to the spring term.

Term and Structure

Applicants must be creative, intellectually versatile, and demonstrate very strong analytic or writing skills. They should exhibit good judgment, loyalty, discretion, and a commitment to the Cicero Institute’s founding principles.

The fellowship runs for one semester, September 1 through December 15, 2026, with a formal fellowship review at the end of the term. Fellows whose work demonstrates strong output quality, sustained engagement, and a clear project trajectory may be invited to continue for a spring term, January 15 through April 30, 2027.

During the term, fellows are expected to:

• Commit approximately 10 hours per week to fellowship work
• Maintain steady momentum toward defined milestones
• Participate in periodic meetings with Cicero staff by phone or video
• Provide biweekly written updates, with additional check-ins as needed
• Collaborate closely with Cicero’s research and policy teams on scope, methods, and deliverables

Past fellows are eligible to re-apply to the program for subsequent years.

Outputs

Each Fellow will complete at least one of the following during the fellowship in partnership with our four policy teams or research team:

Fellows are expected to operate at the highest methodological standards. We value clarity in research questions, assumptions, limits of inference, robustness, and what the evidence does and does not support.

Application

Applicants may submit the following materials to [email protected] with “Law & Policy Fellowship Application” in the subject line:

• Cover letter stating policy domains(s) of interest, alignment with Cicero’s mission, and motivation for producing policy research.
• Curriculum vitae reflecting academic background, relevant employment, and prior analytic, research, legal, or policy work.
• A writing or research sample demonstrating the applicant’s analytical or policy reasoning. This may include a policy memo, academic paper, legal brief, published piece, data analysis, or similar work product.
• A one-page project proposal describing a research or policy question the applicant intends to pursue, its relevance to state-level reform, and the expected contribution. The proposal must point toward one of the fellowship outputs and may be presented to the relevant team during the interview process; finalists will refine the proposal in conjunction with that team before formal acceptance. Fellows whose proposals are approved remain available to support other team priorities as needed.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Final selections are made after video interviews with the most qualified candidates.