2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Strategies for Effective Broader Impacts Work

Broader impacts (BI) plans are required of all National Science Foundation (NSF) proposals. In 2011, the National Science Board, which oversees NSF, reconfirmed NSF’s commitment to BI in its taskforce report on the merit review system. However, many investigators continue to grapple with what constitutes high-quality BI. Articulating and achieving excellent BI is recognized as a major challenge to many researchers. This session will describe the combined efforts of a group of AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows assigned to NSF and the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI). The Policy Fellows are in a unique position inside NSF to identify novel ways to measure BI in NSF portfolios and crystallize a common language for the different BI cultures and values among scientific disciplines. NABI is an NSF Research Coordination Network awarded through the Biology Directorate in 2014 that is creating a professional network of individuals and offices committed to planning and carrying out effective BI programming. In this session, we will share findings from the Policy Fellows group and the goals and progress to date of NABI.