Understanding NSF Broader Impact Criterion Samir Khuller Dept. of Computer Science Univ. of Maryland samir@cs. umd. edu
NSF’s Review Criteria • Intellectual Merit – “How well does the proposed research advance the field” --well understood. • Broader Impact – “How does this research impact society at large(? )” – less well understood. • Proposals often fail to articulate point (2). • More importantly, how shall we weight these two factors? • How shall we evaluate broader impact?
BI Summit (June 2010) • Co-organized a BI Summit with T. Camp, J. Gilbert, J. Goldsmith and some NSF folks. • URL: http: //www. nsfbirds. org • This was a CISE Summit for Computer Scientists – so some of my discussion may be domain specific. • Main objective of the summit was to better understand the BI criterion and to raise awareness of this issue in the CS community.
Main Points • Advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning. • Broaden participation of under-represented groups. • Enhance infrastructure for research and education. • Broaden dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding. • Benefits to society.
Central BI points At the workshop, it was noted that, beyond the prodding of Congress, there are many reasons to care about BI and to connect science to society in order to: • Ensure better public understanding of science and engineering. • Ensure better public appreciation of research, its purpose and impact. • Inspire the young to enter science and engineering.
America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, passed by House on May 28, 2010 Section 214(a) Goals - The Foundation shall apply a Broader Impacts Review Criterion to achieve the following goals: • Increased economic competitiveness of the United States. • Development of a globally competitive STEM workforce.
• Increased participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM. • Increased partnerships between academia and industry. • Improved pre-K-12 STEM education and teacher development. • Improved undergraduate STEM education. • Increased public scientific literacy. • Increased national security.
People’s thoughts about what constitutes BI • • Writing textbooks Writing for popular press/blogs Online videos/lectures General education courses (I-courses!) HS Teacher training Visit area high schools to talk about research. Events like Physics is Phun! Research on world-improving applications – directly benefiting society
BI is here to stay (opinion page!) • We expect that careful attention will be given by panels and program officers to this aspect, especially on proposals written by senior PI. • Panels may be willing to overlook minimal prior contribution/BI efforts by Asst. Profs, but not by people who have had prior NSF funding. • Every proposal may be strong on some aspects of BI, and not on others. There is no “one-size fits all”.
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