Metrics for measuring broadening participation in NSF programs

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has long encouraged its grantees to consider individual and institutional diversity in their activities, specifically through the Broader Impacts merit review criterion. A group representative of the NSF grantee community participated in a workshop to develop metrics by which grantee institutions and individual principal investigators could document their efforts to broaden participation in science and engineering by persons drawn from populations underrepresented in these fields, as well as from institutions that underparticipate in NSF grantee programs. The group proposed that the NSF require its grantee institutions to submit annually and for public display (1) their most recent affirmative action plans, including equal employment opportunity information and utilization reports; and (2) indication of specific collaborations with nonresearch institutions in NSF programs. Deliberations and recommendations of the working group are presented in this article.