NSF Broader Impacts

Researchers make immense contributions to not only our growing body of knowledge, but to society at large. Through various activities, projects, and initiatives, researchers can use their work to directly or indirectly improve people’s lives. The National Science Foundation (NSF) asks researchers to think about the implications of their proposal through a section, required in all NSF proposals, called Broader Impacts. This section outlines the socially relevant outcomes of the project and encourages engagement with broader communities.

Find the full PDF guide here.

Broader Impact-qualifying activities are not limited to these examples and activities do not need to address all the following areas:

  1. Inclusion: Full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 
  2. Education: Improved STEM education and educator development at any level 
  3. Public Engagement: Increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology
  4. Societal Wellbeing: Improved well-being of individuals in society
  5. Workforce Development: Development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce
  6. Partnerships: Increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others
  7. National Security: Improved national security
  8. Economic Competitiveness: Increased economic competitiveness of the U.S. 
  9. Public Policy: Use of science and technology to inform public policy 
  10. Infrastructure: Enhanced infrastructure for research and education

When choosing the audience for your Broader Impact (BI) activities, consider what makes sense given the topic and scope of your research, what audiences you will enjoy working with, and where you have existing connections. 

Educators

Why This Audience?  You are interested in improving curricula and enhancing education outcomes.

Engagement Strategies: develop curricula or serve as a guest lecturer for teaching students, work with an educational non-profit to design lesson plans for summer camp courses related to your research

Higher Education

Why This Audience? You are interested in engaging directly with university students and enhancing workforce/education outcomes.

Engagement Strategies: work with a photographer or writer during lab/fieldwork to develop communication products, design workshops to engage undergraduate students in your research

Audience: K-12 Students

Why This Audience? You are interested in engaging directly with K-12 students and enhancing education outcomes.

Engagement Strategies: work with a local school to develop an after-school program, collaborate with a local museum to develop materials based on your research for class visits

Policy-Makers

Why This Audience? You are interested in developing practical policy implications for your research and promoting science-based public policy.

Engagement Strategies: collaborate with government scientists on a research project focused on social or environmental issues, present findings or demonstrations to government policy-makers, participate in policy working group. For more resources on engaging policy-makers with your research, see our detailed resource guide.

Public

Why This Audience? You are interested in increasing scientific literacy overall and including often-forgotten audiences in research dissemination.

Engagement Strategies: collaborate with newspapers/magazines to develop materials based on your research, create outreach programs for local prisons or other underserved communities.

Consider the five guiding principles by which NSF proposal reviewers evaluate your proposed BI activities. Keep these questions in mind while designing your proposal and consider how your proposal would be evaluated utilizing ARIS’ BI Rubric.

  1. What is the potential for the proposed activity to benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes?
    1. Clearly define your audience, partners you plan to engage with, and the size of your target audience. How are you planning on reaching and engaging with these audiences and partners – utilizing existing connections or establishing new networks? 
    2. Explicitly tie your proposed BI activities to both your broader research goals and a clear societal benefit. Does your proposed engagement make sense for your research topic, and does it provide a direct benefit to your target audience or partners? 
  2. To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
    1. If you are leveraging existing programs/infrastructure: What new and transformative elements will your BI activity add to this existing program/infrastructure?
    2. If you are designing new programs/infrastructure: What are the creative and transformative elements of your proposed program/infrastructure? 
  3. Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success?
    1. Define how you plan to measure success and attainment of your broader impact goals. Have you clearly defined metrics of success and established a plan to measure them? 
    2. Document and justify the need for your proposed BI activity. Is your proposal grounded in a clear need and existing gap in available programs or infrastructure? 
  4. How well qualified is the individual, team, or organization to conduct the proposed activities?
    1. If you have received prior NSF support as a PI: provide evidence of success of previous BI activities
    2. If you have no prior NSF experience: provide evidence from your past experience that you have the qualifications/connections necessary to execute your proposed BI activity, include partners and team members with prior NSF experience. 
  5. Are there adequate resources available to the PI (either at the home organization or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities? Is the budget allocated for BI activities sufficient to successfully implement them?
    1. Ensure that you have done sufficient research on the estimated cost of your proposed BI activity and budgeted accordingly. Have you provided enough information to demonstrate that your proposed budget matches the infrastructure and resources needed to support your proposed activity? 
    2. If you are utilizing any institutional or partnership resources that are not included in your budget, state this clearly to avoid any confusion on budget discrepancies.

For more details on BI Guiding Principles, consult ARIS’ Guiding Principles guide. 

  1. Consider which potential broader impacts outcomes align with your research. Aside from your own preferences of what audience to engage with, keep in mind that different BI outcomes align best with different research topics. For instance, a research project related to criminal justice may have clear public policy implications, while an anthropological project may be better suited to curricula design or creating an after-school program related to your research findings. 
  2. Remember that broader impacts activities do not need to be a separate “add-on” to your research. BI activities can be incorporated within the process of research itself. However, activities that are part of your typical responsibilities/capabilities as a researcher (hiring RAs, teaching courses, etc.) do not qualify as BI activities. 
  3. Keep in mind that partnerships should have a purpose. They can be strategic (where this partnership reduces duplicate effort amongst organizations), educational (where this partnership facilitates new knowledge for both organizations), or transformational (where this partnership is intended to generate social innovation and change). 
  4. Consider constructing a “BI identity.” Consider how your personal strengths and your research could connect to others and shape the impact your scholarship has on broader audiences throughout your career. 
  5. Consider how to utilize available institutional and partner resources to reduce budgetary constraints. When crafting your budget proposal for BI activities, think about what available resources and infrastructure you can utilize to reduce your budgetary limitations and supplement NSF funding. 

Students and Educators

Public Audiences and Local Communities

  • ARIS Broader Impacts: resources and tools designed to help researchers design, refine, and evaluate Broader Impact plans for NSF proposals
  • NSF Broader Impacts: additional information directly from the NSF on the Broader Impacts component of grants
  • AAAS Communication Toolkit: resources and tools for designing scientific communication that engages with public audiences
  • CADRE Dissemination Toolkit: resources and tips specific to assorted research dissemination methods