Clarifying “Broader Impacts” for NSF Grants

From the Chronicle News Blog: the National Science Foundation issued a “Dear Colleague” letter earlier this month to education grant applicants about the sometimes-misunderstood “broader impacts” criteria used to evaluate grant proposals. Jeffery Brainard explains:

In 1997 the NSF simplified to two the agency’s principal criteria for the merit-based review of grant applications: intellectual merit and broader impacts. The NSF was reacting to pressure from Congress and the White House to show it was using federal tax dollars for more than just ivory-tower, fundamental research.

Ever since, many academic researchers have been perplexed and annoyed by the broader-impacts requirement, often called “Criterion 2.” Although the NSF has stressed that it gives equal weight to both criteria, some scientists have said that intellectual merit should count for more. They also point out that socially useful applications of fundamental research can be difficult to predict and take years to appear.

According to the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program, the NSF budget for R&D in FY 2008 was $4.45 billion. The President’s budget request for FY 2009 would grow that amount to $5.17 billion.

Tags: funding, NSF

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