National Institute of Health
To date, SRS has received a small number of SWO orders and project termination from NIH.
Federal Stop-Work and Project-termination Notices
Principal investigators: Immediately forward any federal stop-work or project-termination notice to Sponsored Research Services and your designated associate vice president for research.
No-Cost Extension Temporarily Disabled
NIH notified (NOT-OD-25-110: Updated NIH Processes for No-Cost Extensions) the extramural community that NIH has temporarily disabled the No-Cost Extension (NCE) functionality in eRA Commons. The Director of NIH has directed NIH staff to review all existing grants and cooperative agreements to ensure that NIH awards do not fund off-mission activities or projects. Therefore, temporarily disabling the NCE functionality in eRA Commons will allow NIH staff to review and assess all NCE requests to confirm that the activities proposed during the extension align with the NIH mission and agency priorities.
At this time and until further notice all requests for NCEs must be submitted as a prior approval request in eRA Commons, for NIH review and approval. Requests for activities that do not align with the NIH mission and agency priorities will not be approved.
Where PIs may need a NCE they are encouraged to seek approval as early as possible via the Prior Approval – No Cost Extension module in eRA Commons as the review process may take an extended period of time.
To date, Sponsored Research Services (SRS) has received a small number of stop-work orders (SWOs) and project termination from NIH. In such cases, representatives from SRS, the assigned associate vice president for research (AVPR) and the research dean from the principal investigator’s college will reach out to the principal investigator (PI) to develop a termination plan according to the SWO and termination mitigation strategies. If you as a PI receive notice from a federal agency of a SWO or project termination, please forward to SRS and the assigned AVPR.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, via NOT-OD-25-068, in accordance with 45 CFR 75 and its accompanying appendices, this Guidance implements and makes publicly available NIH’s updated policy deviating from the negotiated indirect cost rate for new grant awards and existing grant awards, effective as of the date of this Guidance’s issuance. Pursuant to this Supplemental Guidance, there will be a standard indirect rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant.
NIH Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Cost Ruling
Several national organizations, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and Association of American Universities , announced they are working with the research community to proactively develop a more efficient and transparent model of the current F&A cost structure. This model will address concerns with university finance, grant administration, regulatory compliance and research project leadership, among other issues, alongside the research community, with the goal of submission to the federal government for consideration.