Broader impacts in conservation research

This article explores the "broader impacts" of research related to biodiversity conservation. We analyze a sample of abstracts of proposals funded by the United States National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biology (BIO) and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates. The analysis, based on the NSF conceptualization of broader impacts, identified 21 important types of broader impacts mentioned in the abstracts. Our results show that the vast majority of NSF grant recipients propose a small range of broader impacts, and that predictable differences exist in the types of broader impacts that are more and less common for conservation-related work in the biological and social sciences. BIO abstracts contained proportionally fewer mentions of equity, case studies, international links, and workshops for conservation practitioners. SBE abstracts contained proportionally fewer mentions of dissemination to local communities, data sharing, websites, and curriculum. We discuss multiple forms of broader impact (e.g., process-based impacts vs. sharing of results), and then, like the abstracts we analyzed, focus on communication and engagement mechanisms. In order to aid future efforts, we provide examples of unusual and particularly creative approaches that conservation scientists can use to enhance the broader impacts of their work.