Research Lunch Club in Washington, DC
Washington concentrates an extraordinary amount of research — public health, policy, history, the sciences — across universities, agencies and institutions. Research Lunch Club matches you into a small group of DC researchers for lunch, once a month. No reception, no networking event — just three people who do the work, over a good meal, for the cost of a coffee a quarter.
📍 Real researchers, real lunch
Who's in the Washington, DC group
Our DC members include researchers from Georgetown, GWU and Johns Hopkins, and institutions like the NIH, the Smithsonian and the Carnegie Institution. Public-health researchers, social scientists, historians, biomedical scientists — DC's table is unusually rich in policy and applied work.
Researchers from across Washington, DC
A sense of where Washington, DC members spend their days — the universities, institutes and companies they come from.
Where Washington, DC members meet
DC groups meet across the District and just over the line: Georgetown and Foggy Bottom for the universities, downtown and Penn Quarter near the Smithsonian, Dupont Circle, and Bethesda for the NIH crowd in Maryland. Your group picks a lunch spot — there's no shortage of them between the Mall and the Metro.
Third-wave coffee, Washington, DC-style
Lunch has a way of running into coffee. A few independent, third-wave spots Washington, DC researchers gravitate to — chains need not apply.
Filter Coffeehouse
Dupont Circle
Vigilante Coffee
College Park
Lost Sock Roasters
Brookland
🍝 Three researchers, one table
How Research Lunch Club works in Washington, DC
You get matched
Every month we pair you with two other researchers in Washington, DC — deliberately across disciplines and career stages, so the conversation goes somewhere new.
Your group picks a day & a spot
You sort the time and place together in the member app — a lunch that works for all three of you, somewhere easy in the city.
You meet for lunch
Show up, swap notes, and build the kind of relationship that outlasts a conference badge. Most Washington, DC groups keep in touch long after.
Your first lunch is on us
Snap a photo at the table and tag us on LinkedIn or Instagram — we'll cover your first lunch. Our way of saying welcome.
Pricing & the 90-day guarantee
The cost of a coffee
£5 a quarter, and you can cancel anytime. The lunch itself you pay for at the table.
A fresh match monthly
Two new Washington, DC researchers every month you're a member.
90-day guarantee
Not feeling the lunches in your first 90 days? We'll refund your membership.
First lunch on us
Tag us in a photo from your first lunch and we'll cover it.
☕ Lunch that ran into coffee
Washington, DC researcher FAQ
Usually Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, downtown, Dupont or up in Bethesda near the NIH — close to where members work. You sort the day and the spot in the member app.
Other DC-area researchers across fields and seniority — Georgetown, GWU and Johns Hopkins academics alongside researchers at the NIH, the Smithsonian and the Carnegie Institution. Deliberately mixed disciplines.
Each month we group members into threes by city, mixing disciplines and career stages and avoiding repeat pairings. A fresh group every month you're a member.
Yes — DC is full of researchers outside the university system, from public-health and policy researchers to applied and government science. If research is your work, you belong here.
About the price of a coffee a quarter — £5, cancel anytime. Lunch is on you at the table; your first one is on us.
More on meeting other researchers
Join researchers in Washington, DC
The cost of a coffee a quarter. Cancel anytime. Your first lunch is on us.