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It might seem surprising, but federal research funding isn\u2019t just for scientists. A component of many federal grants that support basic research requires that discoveries be shared with nonscientists. This component, referred to as \u201cbroader impacts<\/a>\u201d by the National Science Foundation, can make a big difference for K-12 students and teachers, museumgoers,\u00a0citizen scientists<\/a>\u00a0and other people interested in science, while also helping the scientists themselves give back to the taxpayers that fund their work.<\/p>\n Basic research<\/a>, often done because of a curious scientist\u2019s interest, may not initially have a\u00a0direct application<\/a>, like developing the smartphone or curing a disease. But these discoveries build important knowledge in the natural sciences, engineering, mathematics and related disciplines.<\/p>\n The U.S. is\u00a0a world leader in scientific and technological innovation<\/a>. On the federal level, the National Science Foundation, or NSF, is one of the primary funders of this kind of basic research. In 2022, the federal government\u00a0funded 40% of all basic research done in the U.S.<\/a>, with the remainder coming from other sources, including the business sector.<\/p>\n During World War II, President\u00a0Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/a>\u00a0wanted to position the U.S. for strategic and economic leadership worldwide. He commissioned\u00a0physicist Vannevar Bush<\/a>\u00a0to develop a vision for the future of U.S. science and technology. His 1945 report, \u201cScience: the Endless Frontier<\/a>,\u201d became the blueprint for government-funded basic research. In 1950, Congress created the National Science Foundation to promote the progress of science, advance national prosperity and welfare and secure the national defense.<\/p>\n During the early decades of NSF, the 1950s until the late 1990s, proposals were mostly evaluated based on the quality of the science and the scientists doing the work. But then, the foundation created a new system, still in place today.<\/p>\n Thus, each NSF research proposal is now peer-reviewed based on two criteria: intellectual merit, or the quality and novelty of the science and track record of the research team, and \u201cbroader impacts<\/a>\u201d \u2013 related activities that disseminate the discoveries to general audiences.<\/p>\n Intellectual merit is about advancing science knowledge and innovation, while broader impacts describe why people who aren\u2019t scientists should care, and how society could benefit from this research.<\/p>\n Another pragmatic aspect to broader impacts is that taxpayers pay for these activities, so it\u2019s important for them, and Congress, to understand their return on investment. These broader impacts activities communicate about, and engage the public in, research in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n While researchers usually understand the intellectual merit of their NSF-funded projects, these broader impacts can be challenging to characterize.<\/p>\n Since childhood, I\u2019ve had an interest\u00a0in paleontology<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the study of fossils and what we can learn from them about prehistoric life. This field is primarily basic research \u2014 adding to knowledge about ancient life.\u00a0As a scientist<\/a>\u00a0conducting basic research, I\u2019ve felt the responsibility to give back to society through broader impacts activities, and I\u2019ve seen many of the benefits that these activities can have.<\/p>\n My primary\u00a0area of interest<\/a>\u00a0has been extinct mammals of the Americas, particularly the\u00a055-million-year-old record of fossil horses<\/a>\u00a0on this continent. For years, NSF supported my discoveries about this interesting group of animals. Fossil horses are a classic example of evolution \u2014 in books and museum exhibits.<\/p>\n Many people are generally interested in horses, so it\u2019s easy to attract their attention with this charismatic group. They also are often surprised to learn that prehistoric horses were native to North America for millions of years. Then, during historical times, they were\u00a0first introduced by humans<\/a>\u00a0onto\u00a0the continent about 500 years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over the years, my research team has used grant-funded broader impact activities to teach people about these fossil horses and our research. One example included working with K-12 science teachers to develop lesson plans. The students\u00a0measured fossil horse teeth<\/a>\u00a0and explored how their teeth adapted to feeding on grasses. We\u2019ve also developed exhibits on fossil horses and studied how\u00a0they communicate science to museum visitors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Science teachers have joined our fieldwork to collect fossils along the Panama Canal during its recent expansion. I\u2019ve given many talks and\u00a0collaborated with fossil clubs<\/a>\u00a0and their members throughout the U.S. We\u2019ve also promoted\u00a0projects like Fossils4Teachers<\/a>\u00a0where fossil collectors donated their fossils and worked alongside K-12 teachers to develop lesson plans that were implemented back in the teachers\u2019 classrooms.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also been able to activate peoples\u2019 interest in other animal groups \u2014 such as fossil sharks. Through our\u00a0Scientist in Every Florida School program<\/a>, we gave middle school teachers study kits with real fossil shark teeth. Their students learned to identify the shark teeth and then trained computers to identify the teeth using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Broader impacts activities like these can have a variety of short- and long-term outcomes. More than\u00a050 million people<\/a>\u00a0visit natural history museums in the U.S. annually. Activities that promote museums can reach large numbers of people in their pursuit of lifelong learning.<\/p>\n More broadly, participatory science interest groups can allow people to learn about science while informing basic research projects. Within the field of natural history, a few popular examples include the\u00a0Merlin app<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0iNaturalist app<\/a>, both of which have millions of active observers. Merlin encourages people to submit their observations of birds, and iNaturalist accepts sightings of plants, animals and fossils, which researchers can carefully vet and use as data.<\/p>\n Many of the K-12 teachers my team has worked with report that they feel more confident teaching the new science content that they learned from our collaborations.<\/p>\n Interestingly, although much of the research on science professional development focuses on the teachers, scientists also report a high level of satisfaction and improved communication skills after\u00a0working with these teachers<\/a>, both in the field and back in the classroom.<\/p>\n Generations of U.S. scientists have greatly benefited from federal investments in basic research. In the 75 years since NSF\u2019s founding, the organization has funded hundreds of thousand projects to advance science and technology.<\/p>\n These have supported basic research discoveries and also the training and career development of the\u00a0tens of thousands of scientists<\/a>\u00a0working on these projects annually.<\/p>\n Many prominent scientists<\/a>\u00a0have gone on to be productive leaders and innovators in the U.S. and internationally. NSF has\u00a0funded more than 268 Nobel laureates<\/a>.<\/p>\n While NSF invests in the discovery of foundational knowledge about the natural world, funded projects have not traditionally had direct applications for societal benefits. To be sure, however, many of NSF\u2019s projects \u2013 for example, on lasers and\u00a0nanotechnology<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 started out as\u00a0curiosity-driven basic research<\/a>\u00a0and ended up with immense applications for technological innovation and economic prosperity.<\/p>\n For example,\u00a0mapping the Earth\u2019s ocean floor\u2019s magnetic properties<\/a>\u00a0during World War II helped scientists understand how the crust moves and mountains form. This led to the\u00a0plate tectonic revolution<\/a>\u00a0in the earth sciences. This line of basic research then led to an important application: predicting the probable location of\u00a0high-risk earthquake zones<\/a>\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n None of these downstream applications and benefits to society would have been realized without basic research discoveries supported by federal agencies such as NSF, and the further value added through broader impacts activities.<\/p>\nBroader impact activities<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Basic research benefits for society<\/strong><\/h4>\n