Broader Impacts 101: This workshop will help you make sense of the broader impact criterion. The activity-based workshop will help you to write this section of your NSF proposals with clarity and confidence by providing strategies for conceptualizing, developing, implementing and evaluating your planned BI activities. We will also share tips on how you can leverage existing UA resources and establish robust partnerships both on- and off-campus.  

Broadening Participation in Research: One way to address the NSF’s Broader Impacts requirement is through activities that focus on what the NSF refers to as broadening participation. Broadening participation activities expand efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups (women, people historically excluded from research because of race or ethnicity, people with disabilities) and diverse institutions, such as HSIs, HBCUs and Tribal Colleges, throughout the US. This workshop will explore why this is a priority for NSF and how to plan evidence-based strategies and activities designed to broaden participation

Building Broader Impacts Partnerships: Developing and implementing successful Broader Impacts (BI) activities is often dependent on identifying the right partner(s) and establishing a productive collaborative. But how do you find a "just right" BI partner? What are the elements of a successful partnership? How can you ensure that the relationship is mutually beneficial for both members of the partnership?  These and other questions will be answered in this interactive workshop.

Collaborative Project Management: We offer Collaborative Project Management workshops for multi-disciplinary or multi-institutional teams. Facilitated discussions work to 1) align personal, departmental or institutional, and project goals, and 2) coordinate diverse professional cultures through collaborative timelines and team protocols. Discussions also aim to clarify project scope and responsibilities, and identify potential risks to the project and risks to team cohesion. Join us for a scheduled workshop, or contact us if you would like to include this workshop in your project kick-off or team retreat.

Developing your Broader Impacts Identity:  Most researchers are comfortable thinking about and discussing their research identity — who they are as researchers and what contributions they hope to make to their discipline through their research over the course of their careers. It is far less common, however, for researchers to think about their impact identity — the lasting impacts they aspire to have on their community and on society, as a whole, through their broader impacts work. By developing your impact identity, you no longer have to view each new proposal’s broader impacts statement as a ‘one-off’ activity, starting from scratch each time, but instead an ongoing, graduated approach that continues to build on previous work toward your overarching societal impact goals.

This interactive workshop will introduce the concept of a broader impacts identity and walk investigators through a process for starting to define BI identity. While any researcher is likely to benefit from this workshop, it is particularly relevant to early-career researchers (as well as to broader impacts professionals who work with researchers and can play a crucial role in helping them develop their BI identities).

Evaluating Broader Impacts Activities:  All NSF proposals must not only have a broader impacts component, but a well-articulated plan for evaluating the broader impacts activities that are being proposed. This can present a challenge for investigators who are not trained in program evaluation. This workshop will provide a brief introduction to the basics of program evaluation and connect participants with some tools and resources to help them get started.

Inclusive Mentor Training: The University of Arizona’s College of Education and the STEM Learning Center in partnership with Pima Community College (PCC) launched a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded S-STEM Project, “Bridging Faculty and Student Cultures: Culturally Responsive Support for STEM Students Transferring between Two- and Four-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions”.

The project team selects faculty members who are teaching or conducting research in STEM fields to serve as faculty mentors while earning a stipend and gaining professional development on mentoring in an inclusive, asset-based manner. Due to grant restrictions, eligible STEM fields for this initiative included: biological sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, computer and information sciences, geosciences-related, and engineering.

Website for more information: https://stem.arizona.edu/nsf-s-stem-grant

Exploring Broader and Societal Impacts of Research Workshop

Participants will be introduced to broader impact of research and how to integrate impact more purposefully into research projects; a range of impact categories recognized by funders, including those specific to NSF's review criteria; how to develop an impact CV to complement their research CV.

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Original Host Date: August 11th, 2022

Community Engagement and Collaboration: Building Strong Community Partnerships Through Research

Participants will learn about best practices and considerations for community engaged research projects; the basics of successful collaborative project management; and strategies for building sustained partnerships that help projects thrive now and into the future.

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Original Host Date: August 17th, 2022

Understanding Your Impact: Evaluating and Demonstrating Broader and Societal Impacts of Research

Participants will better understand he roll of project valuation in research impact and be provided with tools to develop impact evaluation plans tailored to their research goals. We will introduce standard evaluation tools such as logic models, as well as innovative frameworks for understanding and articulating how your research is used in society.

Supporting Documents/Handouts

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Original Host Date: September 20th, 2022