Stop Work Order and Termination Order Mitigation Strategies

Purpose

Process for mitigating critical needs when a Stop Work Order (SWO) or a Termination Order (TO) is received. The focus is on determining the impact of the SWO or TO, conducting a risk assessment and developing a mitigation plan addressing critical needs (i.e. graduate student support, critical experiment support, etc.) for consideration by DOR and Provost leadership.

Stop Work Order

Primary focus is on an assessment of what critical parts of the project can be continued and how they will be supported till: 1) the SWO is lifted, and work can continue; or 2) a TO is received. A plan addressing the SWO (which can be for an entire project or specific activities in the project) is developed in this case. 

Termination Order

Primary focus is a critical needs and impact assessment of how the project termination affects personnel, research and educational activities. What parts of the project must be or can be continued pass the termination date and how will those parts be supported (e.g. staff, post-docs and graduate students). A close out plan will be developed in this case. If an appeal of the TO is possible, information relevant to making the appeal should be included in the risk mitigation plan to inform the appeal decision. DOR and Provost leadership will make final decisions on what appeals to pursue.  

Process 

• Formal SWO or TO received at Sponsored Research Services (SRS). 

• SRS review of SWO or TO with respect to legal sufficiency and whether additional guidance from the Office of General Counsel (OGC) is needed. 

• SRS notifies the PI, College (Dean, URC Dean, Finance Dean and DH), and VPR.  

• The URC Dean working with the assigned AVPR (Table 1) and PI begin a risk and impact assessment leading to the development of a risk mitigation and/or close out plan. Funding needed to address critical needs is identified and a tentative plan to identify funding sources is put forth by the AVPR and URC Dean for further consideration and approval by the Federal Transition Committee (DOR and Provost leadership). Note some colleges may have additional guidance specific to the internal college process to inform the AVPR/URC/PI discussions.  

• The AVPR will provide updates to DOR and Provost leadership and serve as a liaison as questions or additional information needs arise. 
• The agreed upon and approved mitigation plan is communicated by the URC Dean to the PI, and the risk mitigation and/or close out plan is implemented.  

Table 1 AVPR Assigned to Colleges