How much will this cost?

After considering partnerships, target audience and potential activities, you need to decide what portion of your proposal's total budget to allocate for BI activities. Factors to consider include whether you will require full funding, utilize in-kind funding, or if are you leveraging an existing program.

Questions to consider when developing your budget include:

• Does your institution and/or chosen partner(s) have the infrastructure to support your BI activities?
• Is the scale of your BI activity appropriate for the scale of the overall project?
• Does the budget justification match the proposed project description in sufficient detail?

Let's Play Higher or Lower: Practice developing a budget

Below are three examples of commonly conceived BI activities. For each example there is basic information provided along with a price. When you select either higher or lower, the actual approximate cost with rough budget detail will appear.

These items are meant to be examples to help provide perspective on budgeting for Broader Impacts. See this table for more ideas on BI projects and estimated cost.

Tips for developing a strong budget proposal

• Describe the resources provided by the PI's institution and partnering institution(s).
• Include a description of the resources provided in the budget justification (beyond the information in your Facilities Statement).
• The budget justification should provide enough information for reviewers to evaluate the appropriateness of the necessary resources to conduct proposed BI activity(s) and reach desired outcomes.

In your proposal:

• Are there adequate resources available to the PI (either at the home institution or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities?
• Is the budget allocated for Broader Impact activities sufficient to successfully implement them?

Reviewers will be asking:

• Do the institution(s) and/or chosen partner(s) have the infrastructure to support the activities and the associated evaluation?
• Is the scale of the BI activities appropriate for the scale of the overall project?
• Does the budget justification match what is proposed in the project description in sufficient detail?

 

Example BI Statement:

Research has shown that early exposure to hands-on science, in both formal and informal learning settings, can enhance learner motivation, investment, and achievement in science (NRC, 2000; NRC 2009). In addition, there is a growing emphasis on having learners engage in the authentic practices of scientists, including data analysis and interpretation (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

What we will do:

BI Activity 1: Expand and contribute to middle school aged youth STEM education and outreach initiatives by partnering with the Cherub Youth Organization (YO). Cherub will receive XXXX dollars to support Cherub staff to plan and implement activities. As the PI, you are budgeting XX amount for your time to participate in the BI.

Cherub serves over 5,000 Hispanic youth in the St. Louis metro area. During their out-of-school programming, Cherub focuses on STEM hands-on learning experiences. The Cherub Education Director, Jane Doe, will serve as a Co-PI (see Letter of Support).

This will support and reflect NSF's Broader Impact goal of Improved STEM education and educator development at any level. This proposed project will provide extensive nanotechnology education and training opportunities for middle school aged youth and Cherub staff and program instructors. Activities include professional development for Cherub staff to provide youth learning events, and Family Science programs.

Budget for materials to implement the hands-on activities for 500 youth annually.

In addition to providing information and hands-on activities materials to implement the hands-on learning, the service learning professional development for the staff, the project PI and graduate students will serve as guest lecturers for these programs sharing more specific information and personal pathways into their careers. These programs will reach over 500 students annually. Efforts focus on STEM literacy, career awareness, and support of the NGSS and informal strands of Science learning.

Creating a defensible BI budget:

What resources will you put into the BI budget to support your partnerships and activities?

Please see example on the left.

 

What time/effort are you and your partners willing to invest?

In addition to yourself, who else will participate in the BI activities? For example, grad students, postdocs, undergraduates or others?

 

What is the existing human capacity, financial investment, and technological investment within your group or on campus?

How could you leverage existing programs? Which resources can your partner(s) leverage?