History of the Broader Impacts Criterion: Providing an Introduction, Historical Description, Nature of Broader Impacts, and Guiding Theory

The term, “broader impacts”, was originally coined in 1996 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be implemented as a scoring criterion for grant proposals. However, the origins of the “entire” broader impacts concept have practical and philosophical roots in values and thought established Before the Common Era (BCE). From a humanistic perspective, origins of this concept can also be found in other cultures throughout the world.