The continuing resolution to fund the Federal government operations expires at midnight EDT today, Friday April 8, 2011. Most federal agencies have provided information about their plans in the event of a shutdown only today, and we are providing here what we have gathered so far. In the event of a lapse in federal appropriations, ORA, the Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA) and Extramural Fund Management (EFM) will continue to monitor communications and provide oversight and guidance on the impact to federally-funded awards and proposals.
In the event of a shutdown, funded activities under currently active awards can continue as long as there is no specific agency approval required by the terms of award to proceed with a project task, or no notice from the awarding agency that specifically orders a work stoppage. If you receive a stop-work notice, please notify OCGA immediately.
New awards, continuations or modifications will most likely not be issued during a shutdown. Requests for Authorization to Spend (RAS) prior to receipt of an award will be processed by OCGA with approval of the PI’s department.
New funding opportunities (RFA, BAA, etc.) will not be issued during the shutdown. No actions will be taken on proposals under review.
Many sponsor electronic systems, such as NSF FastLane and NIH eRA Commons, will be out of service. Grants.gov may still be in operation for funding opportunities that were published before the shutdown, but there may be some problems if submission depends on an agency service (such as FastLane) that is out of service. The UCLA S2S Grants (Cayuse) system will remain available for proposal preparation.
Synopses of agency-specific information that have been received by ORA are provided below. If you have any questions regarding specific awards, please contact your OCGA or EFM representative.
NIH:
- NIH eRA Commons will not be available during the closure
- No awards, proposals or other transactions will be processed
- NIH employees are prohibited from working (even remotely) during the closure
- eRA Helpdesk services may not be available
- Applicants are encouraged not to submit applications (or progress reports) during the closure
- If submitted, electronic may applications will not be processed until the eRA Commons is back online
- Staff may not be available to accept paper applications<
- Initial Peer Review and Advisory Council meetings scheduled during the closure will be rescheduled
- Scores and summary statements may not be available electronically during the closure
- The IAR site will not be accessible
- Once the government re-opens, it may take at least a day for operations and electronic system functionality to resume
NSF:
- FastLane will be completely shutdown
- No new or continuing grants or cooperative agreements will be awarded
- Work may continue for funds already available on grants and cooperative agreements (see NSF guidance for contracts)
- No new funding opportunities will be issued
- Status of deadlines during shutdown will be announced when the government re-opens
- Scheduled review panels will be cancelled and likely rescheduled to a later date
- May experience delays in receiving announcement of funding decisions over the next few months
NASA:
- No new contracts, grants of cooperative agreements issued during shutdown
- Work can continue on current awards unless notified by NASA
NOAA:
- Grant Officers will not be available
- Work under current grants and cooperative agreements should continue unless specifically notified to stop work
- It is anticipated that ASAP (Automatic Standard Application for Payment) will be operational
ARPA-E:
- The agency is operating on carryover funding
- Continuing operations for the immediate future on a case-by-case basis