In recent years, data published by the National Academy of Sciences suggests that up to 50% of academic scientists will drop out of science within five years of PhD completion. Alongside the difficulty of transitioning to the private sector, this trend is driven by a growing concentration of resources amongst faculty scientists. So what can be done to avoid a dramatic shortening of scientific careers?

In 2018, Momental Foundation launched the Mistletoe Research Fellowship (MRF), an umbrella initiative combining two programs that radically invest in improved career outcomes for early career scientists (primarily postdocs). Each Mistletoe Research Fellow receives our Unfettered Research Grant, a $10,000 unrestricted funding award that encourages independent research, and innovation, even serendipity and risk, in their scientific exploration. The grant is combined with parallel participation in an extracurricular training opportunity - our MRF Startup Collaboration program. In this completely remote program, each Fellow joins a small interdisciplinary inter-institutional team that collaborates with a frontier technology startup building a hardware product with humanitarian potential (think portable infant incubators for refugee camps, 3D printed affordable housing, and drones that fight wildfires!). Participating startups are selected by the foundation through a competitive screening process. Guided by the Momental Foundation's Online Learning Community and unique curriculum, Research Fellows build critical skills in project management, scientific communication, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Today, the Momental Foundation works with thirteen R1 university partners and has graduated over 120 Mistletoe Research Fellows. Our most recent cohort of 32 fellows was selected from a pool of 430 applications. In this session, we will first describe the MRF initiative and explore the outcomes of these programs, including career outcomes and increased funding to these early career scientists. Second, we will discuss the unique contracting structures, including intellectual property considerations, that allow for this radical approach.