Science Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Upgrading Scientific Dialogue 

Astera’s first Science Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program: Upgrading Scientific Dialogue is open. Astera wants to accelerate progress by tackling bottlenecks in scientific publishing. Funding EIRs to experiment with new information tools will transform what is possible for scientific dialogue. We are looking for creative, high-agency entrepreneurs who can innovate through the technical challenges to more open and interactive information exchange in the life sciences. We will prioritize strategies that leverage cutting-edge technologies to address limitations in scaling and user experience. 

For details, please see the full program description here.

Ideal candidates are high-agency builders with a sense of urgency. Astera is looking for ambitious entrepreneurs with a product mindset and a strong drive to optimize for user experience. We want to identify collaborative candidates who are eager to tackle the technical challenges of improving and scaling scientific dialogue beyond traditional academic communities. We encourage candidates who bring a unique technological skillset and are willing to rapidly iterate on the basis of key constraints and user needs. 

Science EIRs will carry out the first phase of their work in residence at Astera. We will consider a proposed overall budget of up to $500,000 to cover compensation and resources for the EIR, including other potential teammates. Science EIRs with high-potential ideas and demonstrable excellence in execution during the first year will be eligible for additional funding.

Examples of people who would be qualified to be a Science EIR at Astera:

• Product designers who have an idea for a technical innovation that will catalyze a new era in scientific information exchange.
• Software engineers or platform builders who want to open up new possibilities for innovation by reinventing the underlying infrastructure for sharing data and other scientific information.
• Entrepreneurs with deep user experience and ideas for tools that would lower the barrier to entry and make open science practices easier to adopt.
• Scientists who have technical skills, a bespoke tool, and a viable plan to scale, but need time and resources to work on it.

To apply to be a Science EIR:

• Please attach your resume or CV.
• Include a cover letter that describes your professional background, a problem in publishing and your proposed solution, and your timeline and budget (including your own compensation) - 2 pages max.
• We expect that your ideas are a starting point for future iterations. Please let us know explicitly if you are flexible and willing to collaboratively shape your idea prior to starting a potential residency at Astera.
• If applicable, we would like to know about previous entrepreneurial experience, relevant organizations you may have started, and/or milestones you have achieved so far.
• Please indicate whether you prefer to be on-site, remote, or hybrid.

Qualified candidates will be advanced based on the following criteria:

• Potential of individual
• Importance of problem
• Impact of solution
• Alignment with FAIR principles

If you are a creative, collaborative, high-agency entrepreneur with a product mindset and the drive to accommodate user needs, we’re looking for you!

We will review ideas quarterly. The opportunities are still open and the next round of review will happen later in Q1 2024. Please understand that we cannot provide preliminary feedback on your application. The call remains open if this page is visible.