Download: Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts Template
This 2015 template is intended to help project leaders and evaluators identify evidence of intellectual merit and broader impacts within their project.
Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts are the criteria that the National Science Foundation uses to assess the potential of proposed work and results of previously funded work. This worksheet is intended to help project leaders and evaluators identify (a) the full range of a project’s achievements related to these criteria and (b) available evidence of these achievements or what gaps in evidence need to be filled.
Disclaimer: This document was created more than five years ago. While the content may still be relevant or useful, we advise you to contact EvaluATE or your NSF program officer for matters that relate to grant management or NSF requirements.
Kirk Knestis 
CEO, Hezel Associates
Dr. Kirk Knestis is CEO of Hezel Associates, a Syracuse, NY, research, evaluation, and planning firm with particular expertise studying STEM and workforce development innovations and programs. Dr. Knestis leads Hezel Associates’ team of nine researchers, managing a portfolio that includes contributions to more than a dozen NSF projects across seven programs. He came to manage the firm having earned a Ph.D. in education policy and evaluation, and has experience as a small business owner, STEM and career technology classroom teacher, higher education faculty member, and researcher affiliated with university and nonprofit agencies.
Lori Wingate
Executive Director, The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University
Lori has a Ph.D. in evaluation and more than 20 years of experience in the field of program evaluation. She is co-principal investigator of EvaluATE and leads and a variety of evaluation projects at WMU focused on STEM education, health, and higher education initiatives. Dr. Wingate has led numerous webinars and workshops on evaluation in a variety of contexts, including CDC University and the American Evaluation Association Summer Evaluation Institute. She is an associate member of the graduate faculty at WMU.
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EvaluATE is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers 0802245, 1204683, 1600992, and 1841783. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.