In light of the ongoing discussions in Congress regarding funding for Federal Fiscal Year 2024, there is a potential for a federal government shutdown on October 1, 2023. Agency Specific contingency plans are constantly being updated and OCGA will post updates on our website during the shutdown. In the meantime please see the information below for general guidance.
Active Federal Awards
- In the event of a shutdown, funded activities under currently active federal 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 the Office of Contract and Grant Administration (OCGA) immediately. Expenses incurred during a Stop Work period are NOT reimbursable, even when the government resumes normal operations, until a written notice to resume work is received.
Proposals
- Proposal submission systems for NIH and NSF will be open, but may become unavailable. Each federal agency will provide guidance on the status of proposal systems and whether submission deadlines will be revised. It is expected that proposals will not be processed by agencies until normal operations resume.
- We recommend watching for announcements from agencies for extensions of deadline dates.
- There is a possibility that the Grants.gov Contact Center will remain available. However, it’s unclear if all Help Desks systems will remain functional.
- The UCLA S2S Grants (Cayuse) system will remain available for proposal preparation and submission.
Reporting Requirements
- Principal Investigators (PIs) should continue to meet all deadlines set forth in their awards and should be able to submit annual and final project reports and Project Outcomes Reports via Research.gov.
Other
- Peer reviews/study sections are not expected to meet, which may impact faculty who are reviewers and may lead to delays in start dates for those whose proposals are awaiting review (if the shutdown is prolonged).
- Federal personnel will not be available. While each agency may articulate emergency contact procedures, as a rule, do not expect federal personnel to be available.
- For federally funded work that requires access to federal facilities or federal staff affected by a shutdown, the PI should evaluate whether there are portions of the work that can continue. If the work cannot continue without access to federal facilities/staff, or a stop work notice is issued, the department should determine if persons working under the agreement can be redirected to other work and/or fund sources.
- Faculty working at a federal agency on an IPA agreement should immediately contact the agency to determine next steps.
OCGA will continue to monitor the situation closely and keep you apprised of agency-specific guidance as it becomes available. Some contingency plans are available here.
If you have award specific questions, please reach out to your OCGA contact.