{"id":1666,"date":"2025-12-12T11:12:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/?page_id=1666"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:12:44","slug":"a-brief-overview-of-broader-impacts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/a-brief-overview-of-broader-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief Overview of Broader Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Broader Impacts (BI) are frequently thought of as education, outreach, or broadening participation. Those are legitimate and valuable BI activities. But BI can also be reflected in the inherent value of the research itself. Further, while BI is most closely associated with the National Science Foundation (NSF), <em>all<\/em> grant proposals need to answer the question of <em>why the project matters<\/em>. WSU\u2019s land-grant mission is a good place to begin thinking about that. How do research, scholarship, and creative activities done at the university benefit the state of Washington and its citizens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NSF website includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/funding\/learn\/broader-impacts\">page devoted to BI<\/a>, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/science-matters\/nsf-101-five-tips-your-broader-impacts-statement\">Five Tips for Your Broader Impacts Statement<\/a>. Be sure to also review <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/updates-on-priorities\">NSF\u2019s 2025 update on priorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NSF identifies eight examples of possible societal outcomes for a project, which is not an exclusive list. Investigators are free to be creative in their BI activities or approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-row wsu-row--sidebar-right\" >\r\n    \n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">The NSF categories are:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>STEM education &#8211; <\/strong>Improving education and educator development \u2014 at any level \u2014 in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Public engagement&nbsp; &#8211; <\/strong>Increasing public scientific literacy and public engagement with STEM.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Societal well-being &#8211; <\/strong>Improving the well-being of individuals in society.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>STEM workforce &#8211; <\/strong>Developing a more diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Partnerships &#8211; <\/strong>Building partnerships between academia, industry and others.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National security &#8211; <\/strong>Improving national security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic competitiveness &#8211; <\/strong>Increasing the economic competitiveness of the U.S.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Infrastructure &#8211; <\/strong>Enhancing infrastructure for research and education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Three of the outcomes &#8211; STEM education, public engagement, and STEM workforce development &#8211; encompass outreach activities commonly thought of as broadening participation. These activities are legitimate pursuits and must not be restricted to any particular group of applicants. <em>Best practice for such outreach projects is to unambiguously state that the activity is open to all qualified applicants. <\/em>Note that BI-related costs are allowable and allocable in NSF proposal budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remaining outcomes &#8211; societal well-being, partnerships, national security, economic competitiveness, and infrastructure \u2013 are related to the inherent value of the project. A broader impacts statement can focus on that factor alone. Consider why the general public should care about the work being proposed. What problem might it solve that will improve something for a family, a community, a business, or the country? &nbsp;Further, federal grants come from taxpayer dollars. Consider why those taxpayers should care about the advancements you are making. What do they need know? How would you explain the project\u2019s significance to them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">Additional resources:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The NSF-supported organization, <a href=\"https:\/\/researchinsociety.org\/\">Advancing Research Impact in Society<\/a> is devoted to furthering broader impacts in all aspects and levels. Their website hosts a <a href=\"https:\/\/aris.marine.rutgers.edu\/index.php\">Broader Impacts Toolkit<\/a>, which includes <a href=\"https:\/\/aris.marine.rutgers.edu\/principles.php\">Guiding Principles<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/aris.marine.rutgers.edu\/checklist.php\">Planning Checklist<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/aris.marine.rutgers.edu\/wizard.php\">BI Wizard<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/aris.marine.rutgers.edu\/rubric.php\">BI Project Rubric<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>WSU Office of Research has a <a href=\"https:\/\/orap.wsu.edu\/research-resources\/broader-impacts\/\">page about Broader Impacts<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Webpages at <a href=\"https:\/\/osp.gatech.edu\/sample-broader-impact-statements\">Georgia Institute of Technology<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/osp.gatech.edu\/sample-broader-impact-statements\"><\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/researchservices.cornell.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/2019-06\/BroaderImpacts_2016_01_12.pdf\">Cornell University<\/a> have sample BI Statements and Activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">Some Ideas:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Outreach\/Educational Activities: Many BI plans have traditionally focused on education activities, ranging from K-12 outreach to a variety of public programming for adults. There are a variety of ways to bring your research to various groups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Develop summer workshops or internships \u2013 for K-12, undergraduates, graduate students, or teachers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Collaborate with regional schools, community colleges, museums, or other institutions to create programming<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create training guidelines related to your research<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design a new course or integrate the research into an existing course<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Produce podcasts or videos to communicate science<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design citizen science projects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop online tutorials<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">Other ideas: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Through the inherent value of the research, BI can contribute in any number of ways. Some activities or ideas to focus on might be to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Integrate new research into existing curriculum<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop policy briefs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop open-source software or datasets<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Host professional development workshops<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Organize working groups<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support workforce development for the next generation of researchers, professionals, or leaders<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Develop tutorials or reproducible code<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enhance institutional infrastructure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Advance technology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Promote economic development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure national security<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contribute to energy resources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-column\"  style=\"\">\r\n\t\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broader Impacts (BI) are frequently thought of as education, outreach, or broadening participation. Those are legitimate and valuable BI activities. But BI can also be reflected in the inherent value of the research itself. Further, while BI is most closely associated with the National Science Foundation (NSF), all grant proposals need to answer the question [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1666\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cas.wsu.edu\/gfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}