The Center for Precollegiate Education and Training (CPET) is uniquely poised as a University of Florida Center with expertise in research education, outreach, and evaluation. CPET has a 60-year history of partnering with the university community to provide content-rich, immersive STEM experiences and career explorations for Florida K-14 teachers and students and to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of a diverse portfolio of programming.
CPET Programs are developed and coordinated to promote excellence in science, technology, engineering and math; foster interdisciplinary science education throughout university & college research centers; forge partnerships among researchers, schools, communities, and industries; continually integrate research processes and product knowledge with national education goals and standards; foster the skills of research students, graduate students, and faculty to bring their work to the public.
In addition, CPET administers its own research aligned programs in collaboration with more than 400 research faculty annually. Thus, Principal Investigators can choose to partner with CPET and participate in existing, highly prestigious programs for Florida teachers and secondary school students to broaden the impacts of their research in programs with recruitment, programmatic design, extracurricular support, and evaluation processes already in place. Targeted audiences include underrepresented populations.
Reach out to Dr. Mary Jo Koroly, Director, with any questions at korolymj@ufl.edu
APRIL 2025 UPDATE:
Updates on NSF priorities and the agency’s implementation of recent executive orders
Updates on NSF Priorities | NSF - National Science Foundation
NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders | NSF - National Science Foundation
National Alliance for Broader Impacts
Learn MoreOther Broader Impact Resources
Learn MoreContact CPET
UF CPET partners with UF research faculty, staff and students across campus and with education professionals across Florida. We offer decades of experience and educational resources throughout the state to help you and your research make a difference. For information on how we can collaborate with you to develop and/or implement your broader impact statement, please get in touch with us at any of the contacts listed below.
Dr. Mary Jo Koroly, Director
Center for Precollegiate Education and Training
University of Florida
334 Yon Hall, PO Box 112010
Gaineseville, FL 32611-2010
Phone: (352) 392-2310
Fax: (352) 392-2344
Email: cpet@cpet.ufl.edu
NSF Guidelines
Broader Impacts (BI) is one of two merit review criteria, along with Intellectual Merit, that the National Science Foundation (NSF) expects proposers to fully address in their proposals. The definitions of the two criteria, as noted in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (Ch. III Section A), are listed below:
- Intellectual Merit: The potential to advance knowledge, and
- Broader Impacts: The potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes
Requirements for Broader Impacts
The NSF revised the BI requirements in 2013 so that proposals no longer have to span five specific criteria. In its Grant Proposal Guide (Ch. II Section C), the agency now only offers broad guidelines on how researchers can meet the BI requirement and potential social outcomes they can strive to achieve.
Guidance on How Broader Impacts Can Be Accomplished:
- Through the research itself (i.e., research that has potential to lead to breakthroughs in certain industries or contribute to solutions to societal problems)
- Through the activities that are directly related to specific research projects (e.g., using the research project as a training ground for students or early-career scientists)
- Through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project (e.g., running an educational workshop for high school students on your research topic)
Examples of Target Outcomes for Broader Impacts Activities:
- Full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in STEM
- Improved STEM education and educator development at any level
- Increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology
- Improved well-being of individuals in society
- Development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce
- Increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others
- Improved national security
- Increased economic competitiveness of the United States
- Enhanced infrastructure for research and education
*Note that successful proposals often combine several different Broader Impacts approaches and target several different outcomes. For example, a researcher might describe the potential impact of the research itself on a particular industry but also involve undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds in the research through an REU program and run educational workshops on their research topic for high-school women.