§1862o–9 Broader impacts merit review criterion

Summary

Requires the Foundation to count partnerships between university researchers and industry scientists as acceptable ways to meet the "broader impacts" part of grant proposals, especially for research fields important to future national economic competitiveness like nanotechnology. The Director must send Congress a report not later than 1 year after August 9, 2007. The report must say what rules each division uses to judge broader impacts, show what kinds of activities awardees have proposed by division, include any evaluations the Foundation has done about how well those activities were carried out and how effective they were, explain which national goals (for example, improving undergraduate and K–12 STEM education, promoting university‑industry collaboration, and increasing participation by underrepresented groups) the broader impacts part can best support, and describe what the Foundation is doing and should do to use this part of proposals to improve undergraduate STEM education.