scientific-problem-selection

Guides Claude through a structured framework for evaluating research questions, based on Fischbach & Walsh’s Cell (2024) framework for selecting tractable scientific problems.

   
Type Claude Skill
Supplier Anthropic
Availability GA — distributed via anthropics/life-sciences (Oct 2025)
Pricing Free / OSS
Capabilities Read-only — does not write files unless you ask Claude to summarise outputs to disk

How to install

  • Claude Code — plugin marketplace:
    /plugin marketplace add anthropics/life-sciences
    /plugin install scientific-problem-selection@life-sciences
    
  • Claude.aiSettings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, using the skill bundle from the anthropics/life-sciences repo.

What it does

Skill instructions encoding Fischbach & Walsh’s Cell (2024) framework — covers project ideation, risk assessment, troubleshooting stuck projects, and strategic scientific planning.

Primary use cases: PI / postdoc project ideation, go/no-go decisions on lab projects, structured triage of competing research directions.

Notes

Pure prompt-based skill — no external services or runtime dependencies. Applies to any life-science research planning conversation.

Sources


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