Who's This For
This issue is for anyone who says "I am not sure what my broader impacts should be."
It's also for those who feel compartmentalized, where outreach feels separate from research and teaching. It can be overwhelming with all the possibilities for broader impacts and this makes it hard to find a focus. Sometimes the timing of a grant or partnership or even your institution might push in directions that don't quite fit who you are.
The Impact Identity Framework gives you a way to think about where your broader impacts come from, not what activities to do, but why certain activities make sense for you to be a part of.
The Partnership Moment
Someone (Faculty peer, NSF PO, etc.) asks you about your broader impacts approach and you don’t have a clear answer.
You’ve seen what others do, museum partnerships, K-12 programs, industry collaborations, entrepreneurship support. Some sound interesting. Some sound like a lot of work. None of them feel obviously connected to who you are and what you care about.
So you look at what’s convenient, what your institution makes easy, what your colleagues have done before. You find something that fits the proposal and move on.
But something is giving you a little uncertainty. Is this really your broader impacts? Or broader impacts you’re doing because the grant requires it?
