Collaborative Research: Broader Impacts for Research and Discovery Summit

A Committee of Visitors recently evaluated the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) at NSF and concluded that the broader impacts from the CNS investigators could be (and should be) improved. Other NSF Divisions (e.g., the Division of Information & Intelligent Systems) want to improve the broader impacts of their funded NSF grants as well. The main goal of this proposed project is to discuss, present, and subsequently develop guidance materials for the NSF computing research community on how to effectively integrate broader impact activities into research projects. To meet our goal, we propose the following two efforts. - A 2-day summit where (1) several examples of projects with superior broader impacts will be presented and (2) working groups will meet to discuss and document current/future broader impact activities and ways in which infrastructure can be established to make it easier for NSF investigators to improve the broader impacts of their work. - The development of several materials/resources for both NSF leaders (e.g., common language about broader impacts that can be used on future NSF proposal solicitations) and members of the computing community (e.g., a set of videos that capture the presentations of speakers at the summit). The proposed project will focus on all five broader impact categories and includes significant dissemination plans (e.g., a series of articles to be published in CRA’s Computing Research News). Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of this project will arise from the working group discussions at the summit. At the end of the summit, we will create a report that synthesizes both current and future ideas in each of the five broader impact categories. Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of this project will arise from the computing community members, by those to whom they speak about the summit, and by those who access materials created after the summit. We have several dissemination plans to ensure the efforts from this project have an impact on future NSF projects. The impact on future NSF projects should result in significant broader impacts from CISE research projects across all five broader impact categories.