NSF Research Grants — Broader Impacts
Every NSF research proposal is reviewed on Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, each necessary and neither sufficient alone. Since April 2025 NSF asks proposers to prioritise six statutory Broader Impacts goals and to keep participation activities open to all Americans.
Scheme details
- Funding range
- Set by each solicitation, with no NSF-wide cap; FY2023 research grants averaged about $211,000 a year (median $154,000) including indirect costs, over 3.1 years on average
- Career stage
- All career stages
- Scheme type
- Individual
- Eligibility
- Proposals come from US organisations: universities and colleges, non-profit research and education bodies, Tribal Nations and some companies. Federal agencies and FFRDCs are not normally funded, and foreign organisations rarely. Any career stage; solicitations may add limits.
- Format & limits
- Project Summary: 1 page in three boxes (Overview, Intellectual Merit, Broader Impacts); Project Description: 15 pages, with a 'Broader Impacts' heading and up to 5 pages of Results from Prior NSF Support; Budget Justification: 5 pages (PAPPG 24-1)
- Deadline
- Open now Set by each solicitation; many core programmes, including BIO Core (NSF 26-517), accept proposals at any time
View official scheme page
https://www.nsf.gov/funding/learn/broader-impacts
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Last updated: 2026-09-24
Other United States schemes
NSF CAREER Award
NSF's most prestigious award for early-career faculty: five years of support for an integrated research and education plan. Still running under solicitation NSF 22-586, with NSF's 2025 priorities now applied to Broader Impacts.
NIH R01 — Significance & Innovation
NIH's standard investigator-initiated project grant. Since 2025 reviewers score two factors, Importance of the Research (Significance and Innovation) and Rigor and Feasibility (Approach), and check expertise and resources for sufficiency.
NIH K99/R00 — Pathway to Independence
Two-phase award taking a postdoc from mentored research (K99, 1 to 2 years) to an independent faculty post (R00, up to 3 years). NIH replaces it with the KT1/R00 Career Transition to Research Independence Award from October 2027.