; or (ix) related social sciences. (3) Award guidelines Fellowships under the program shall be awarded pursuant to guidelines established by the Under Secretary. (4) Selection preference In selecting qualified individuals for participation in the program, the Under Secretary, acting through the Director, shall give preference to applicants from historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. (5) Placement The program shall support the placement of qualified individuals in positions within the executive branch of the Federal Government where such individuals can address and advance the research priorities developed by the Under Secretary under paragraph (7). (6) Fellowship term A fellowship under the program shall be for a period of up to 2 years. (7) Fellowship research priorities The Under Secretary, acting through the Director, and in consultation with representatives from the United States Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers, as appropriate, shall develop and publish priorities for the conduct of research by fellows, which may include the following: (A) Advance the collaborative development of a flexible community-based water resources modeling system. (B) Apply artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to advance existing hydrologic modeling capabilities. (C) Support the evolution and integration of hydrologic modeling within an Earth Systems Modeling Framework. (D) Improve visualizations of hydrologic model outputs. (E) Advance the state of coupled freshwater and salt water modeling and forecasting capabilities. (F) Advance understanding and process representation of water quality parameters. (G) Advance the assimilation of in-situ and remotely sensed observations and data. (H) Support the integration of social science to advance decision support services. (I) Develop methods to study groundwater sustainability and estimate the efficiency of recharge management. (c) Direct hiring (1) Authority During