Session B – Broader Impacts: What’s the big idea? J. Britt HolbrookSharon Franks Center for the Study of InterdisciplinarityResearch Proposal Development Service University of North TexasUC San Diego COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Britt climbing a mountainSharon with Wally

2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting 24 February Portland, Oregon, USA

2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting 24 February Portland, Oregon, USA

2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting 24 February Portland, Oregon, USA

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers Other scientists

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers Other scientists BI experts?!

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF Program officers

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF Program officers Committee of Visitors

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF Program officers Committee of Visitors AC/GPA

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF Program officers Committee of Visitors AC/GPA NSB

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF US Congress

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF US Congress America COMPETES Act of 2007

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF’s Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC) Who is the audience for your BI statement? Reviewers NSF US Congress America COMPETES Act of 2007 Postdoctoral mentoring plan Ethics education requirement Report to Congress on national needs BIC helps meet

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 H.R America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 SEC BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERION. Subsection (a) – “Goals” Lists 8 specific national needs toward which BIC ought to be directed

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 H.R America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 SEC BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERION. Subsection (a) – “Goals” Lists 8 specific national needs toward which BIC ought to be directed RELEVANCE

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 H.R America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 SEC BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERION. Subsection (b) – “Policy” Directs NSF to institute policy changes that will encourage institutions and individual PIs who receive NSF funding to: partner with experts to develop BIC training programs use existing models for BI implementation, and develop evaluation and assessment procedures for BIC

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 H.R America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 SEC BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERION. Subsection (b) – “Policy” Directs NSF to institute policy changes that will encourage institutions and individual PIs who receive NSF funding to: partner with experts to develop BIC training programs use existing models for BI implementation, and develop evaluation and assessment procedures for BIC QUALITY

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 H.R America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 RELEVANCE + QUALITY = ACCOUNTABILITY

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 How well does the activity… Promote teaching, training learning? Broaden participation of underrepresented groups? Enhance research and education infrastructure? Achieve broad dissemination? Benefit society?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 How well does the activity… [ QUALITY ] [ RELEVANCE ] Promote teaching, training learning? Broaden participation of underrepresented groups? Enhance research and education infrastructure? Achieve broad dissemination? Benefit society?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF Dear Colleagues Letter on QUALITY It is expected that project activities related to broader impacts will be of the same caliber as those addressing the intellectual merit criterion. They should be based on good scholarship, and be designed to achieve clearly stated goals and metrics, while possessing the appropriate expertise and resources available for implementation. Thus, a simple listing of outreach activities, or reference to inclusion of research personnel who are members of underrepresented groups, falls short of the rigor required to satisfactorily address this criterion. [Bold added, italics in original]

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Advice on QUALITY You should develop a BIC statement that includes a description of: the intended AUDIENCE you are targeting the NEEDS of that audience your PLAN to meet those needs, including: PERSONNEL (show relevant expertise) FUNDS (demonstrate feasibility) your ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION plan.

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Advice on RELEVANCE You should develop a BIC goal that: Revolves around something about which YOU CARE Is obviously RELATED TO YOUR RESEARCH Builds upon SOMETHING YOU ALREADY DO

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity promote teaching, training, and learning? Ask yourself: What do I do that promotes teaching, training, and learning? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity promote teaching, training, and learning? Ask yourself: What do I do that promotes teaching, training, and learning? Do you: educate students? mentor students and/or postdocs? engage in informal education activities? think about how you learn from these activities, as well? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity broaden participation of underrepresented groups? Ask yourself: What do I do that broadens participation of underrepresented groups? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity broaden participation of underrepresented groups? Ask yourself: What do I do that broadens participation of underrepresented groups? Do you: include members of underrepresented groups on your research team? reach out to underrepresented groups in any of your education activities? think about reasons other than social justice to broaden participation? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity enhance research and education infrastructure? Ask yourself: What do I do to enhance research and education infrastructure? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity enhance research and education infrastructure? Ask yourself: What do I do to enhance research and education infrastructure? Do you: engage in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary activities? share equipment or facilities with others? think about how you can enhance those activities, and how those activities enhance your science? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity achieve broad dissemination? Ask yourself: What do I do to achieve broad dissemination? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity achieve broad dissemination? Ask yourself: What do I do to achieve broad dissemination? Do you: publish outside of your field? participate in Open Access policy? blog, use social networks, present at conferences, etc.? remember the data management plan NSF is going to require? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity benefit society? Ask yourself: What do I do to benefit society? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF asks: How well does the activity benefit society? Ask yourself: What do I do to benefit society? Do you: educate? inform? think about how your research is relevant outside of your field? How can I describe that in my BIC statement?

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Don’t forget about NSF! NSF insists that BI has always been part of its mission, but … Overall, the scientific community has not fully embraced BIC. NSF is caught between Congress and the scientific community, but … NSF needs PIs to help make the case to Congress for funding!

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF wants you! NSF insists that BI has always been part of its mission, but … Overall, the scientific community has not fully embraced BIC. You can: Educate yourself about BIC. Educate your fellow scientists and your institution about BIC. Volunteer to serve as a reviewer – contact your program officer. Apply to serve as a rotator at NSF.

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 NSF wants you! NSF is caught between Congress and the scientific community, but … NSF needs PIs to help make the case to Congress for funding! You can: Take BIC seriously, approach it as you would intellectual merit. This applies not only when you are a proposer, but also … when you are reviewing proposals, and when you are mentoring students and postdocs!

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Back to the reviewers Things to remember: Reviewers are extremely busy, and … they may not read your proposal carefully! Many reviewers may not have a good grasp of BIC, and … they may not take your BI statement seriously! Reviewers need your help!

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Back to the reviewers How to help your reviewers: Use the language of the RFP, where applicable. Use the language of BIC: This proposed research will enhance the infrastructure for research and education in the following ways …. This research will benefit society by …. Think a bit like a member of Congress: This proposed research will enhance scientific literacy by …. This proposed research will address a pressing national need: national security or the Gulf oil spill. Be thorough and specific!

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 How to help your reviewers Use ALL of the application – there are many places to indicate BIs besides the 15 page description, including: Your biographical sketch: synergistic activities should be loaded with your history of engaging in BI activities. Your data management plan is another supplemental document in which you can emphasize the BI of the current proposal. Your description of your facilities can emphasize BI infrastructure at your institution or a partner institution. Your budget and budget justification should talk about BI. Your 1-page project summary should nail BIC.

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Recommended online resources: – informal education site – mentoring women in physical oceanography

COSEE NOW Broaden Your Impact Webinar Series 19 May, 2010 Thanks! Liesl Hotaling for organizing the webinar series and inviting us to participate here, as well as for helpful comments and support. Janice McDonnell, Chris Parsons, Sage Lichtenwalner, and COSEE NOW for helpful discussion and guidance, as well as for hosting the webinar. NSF. You, for allowing us to broaden our impact. You can bet this activity will be included in Britt’s NSF bio sketch!