The Office of Research is closely monitoring the possibility of a lapse in federal government funding (Federal Shutdown) after midnight this Thursday 9.30.2021.
During a Federal Shutdown:
Most federal agency operations will cease during a federal shutdown. Expect a lack of federal communications related to your proposals and awards. Federal agencies may temporarily stop making payments.
OSP will continue with business as usual within the constraints created by unavailable Federal sponsor systems and staff. OSP’s goal is to process items received to the extent possible. If a shutdown is prolonged, OSP may return requests to the department for resubmission when the shutdown is over.
Shutdown Scenarios for:
Federal Sponsor Applications
Use the sponsor’s posted sponsor deadlines to calculate your GIM 19 deadline until further notice.
- Grants.gov:
- We expect Grants.gov will be up and that proposals can be submitted, but they will not be forwarded to federal sponsor agencies. These applications will be in a holding pattern in Grants.gov.
- Other:
- We will provide details on specific sponsor systems used for proposal submission, as they become known. If federal sponsor systems have been shut down, applications will be submitted once these systems are back online.
Awards
- Federal awards will not be issued during a Federal shutdown.
- Alternative if partial shutdown: Only some awards may be issued during a partial Federal shutdown.
- Awards that have already reached OSP prior to the shutdown will be processed and sent to GCA.
- Awards that have been issued a UW budget number can begin or continue work unless notification was received from the sponsor such as a “stop work” order or suspension notice. Suspension notices will be documented in a Post-Award Change and processed by GCA. At that point, GCA will change the budget’s status to 3 to prevent additional spend.
- Note that cooperative agreements could be affected if federal participation is required, but not available.
Once federal systems are back online, OSP will resume processing federal awards after all outstanding current proposals are submitted.
Contracts
In the unlikely event a sponsor sends a stop-work order, OSP will immediately notify the PI and eGC1 Admin Contact, upload the order in SAGE, and send the notice as a Post-Award Change to be processed by GCA. At that point, GCA will change the budget’s status to 3 to prevent additional spend.
If you receive a stop-work order in your unit, send it to osp@uw.edu.
Other Post Submission/Post Award Requests
For other requests not yet in OSP, please wait until federal sponsor systems and staffing are available and use the standard process.
We will keep you posted via MRAM and the Research Website as we learn more.
Please forward any communications received related to a shutdown and your federal awards to osp@uw.edu.
Please direct questions related to the financial impact of the shutdown to gcahelp@uw.edu.
Thank you,
The Office of Sponsored Programs & Grant and Contract Accounting