Along with the review of the intellectual merit of each proposal, the National Science Foundation (NSF) reviews the merit of its broader impacts – the impacts and benefits to society of your proposed research. Each proposal submitted to the NSF must include a section about its intended broader impacts.

Consideration of broader impacts, however, is not limited to NSF proposals. Broader impacts (BI) may be framed in terms of outreach, community-engaged scholarship, translation, dissemination, public humanities, community-based participatory research, community-based teaching and learning, and so forth.

MSU’s Office of University Outreach and Engagement offers the following support:

• Identifying possible avenues for BI activities
• Review of BI statement on proposals
• Assistance with finding and connecting with MSU and/or community partners to support BI activities
• Consulting about evaluation of your BI activities
• With grant consultants from the Office of Research and Innovation, advice in preparing BI statements

Contact: Miles McNall, Director for Community-Engaged Research, Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship