Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

There is a powerful desire among government and non-profit scientific funding agencies to support research and development (R&D) that has broad impacts, generates responsible innovation, and positively impacts society. To meet this requirement, science funding agencies require that principal investigators (PIs) include broader impacts or show that their research extends beyond the laboratory. However, the current methods of assessing impact fail to account for two factors, the immediacy and inclusion of grant. The immediacy of a grant describes the way the research integrates broader impacts into the project. The inclusion of a grant considers the impacts of the research on marginalized communities.

To better assess the impacts that research has on marginalized communities, this presentation outlines a new framework, called the Inclusive-Immediacy Criterion (IIC). The inclusion-immediacy framework has two dimensions each with three levels that form a 3X3 grid. Each cell in the grid represents a different type of inclusivity (Inclusive, advantage, universal) and immediacy (direct, intrinsic, extrinsic).

To test the framework, the study analyzes NSF sponsored nanotechnology grant abstracts from 2013 to 2017. We find that 109 out of the 300 grants feature research that is inclusive, while 235 out of the 300 grants have broader impacts that either maintain the status quo or predominately help advantage groups. Using the Inclusion-Immediacy Criterion, policy makers and scholars will better understand the potential impact of funded science.