The Immediacy, Inclusion and Productivity of NSF Grants Under the Broader Impact Criterion

For the two decades, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has required scientists to discuss broader impacts (BIs) to show that their research extends beyond the laboratory. The BI criterion requires scientists to include BI activities, such as K-12 outreach and training graduate students, in their grant proposals. However, there are no standard frameworks for assessing BI activities. This project proposes a new framework for holistically assesses BIs, accounting for three factors: the immediacy of the BI activities, the inclusiveness of the BI activities, and the impact the BI activities have on scientific productivity. Immediacy refers to the active integration of broader impacts into the research design. Inclusiveness considers the impacts of the research on marginalized communities. Research productivity relates to the output of the research project. Reframing the evaluation of the BI criterion to highly immediacy, inclusiveness, and productivity will provide an opportunity to encourage inclusive research and support marginalized communities. This analysis is essential for ensuring that granting agencies meet their mission to support science that advances the whole nation's health, prosperity, and welfare. To analyze BIs, this project develops a new framework, called the Immediacy-Inclusion Criterion (IIC). The two dimensions of the IIC, immediacy and inclusion, form a 3X3 grid. There are three types of immediacy (intrinsic, direct, and extrinsic) and three types of inclusion (universal, advantaged, and inclusive) that characterize broader impact. This project has two central hypotheses: 1) the NSF funds more projects that helps advantaged groups compared to marginalized groups; and 2) funded projects with intrinsic immediacy are more productive than projects with extrinsic immediacy. The project tests these hypotheses by coding and analyzing NSF Project Report Outcomes, using the framework. This will provide insights on the most frequent Bis among NSF grants and how these vary by directorate, field, and type of institution. The work will also analyze the relationship between IIC and research outcomes, such as publication rates. This will provide insight on the relationship between the scientific output and broader impact. This work will inform not only the administration of NSF grants, but will provide wider insight on the relationship between scientific outputs and benefits to the wider public. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.