Greetings Colleagues,
Federal legislation has not passed to fund the federal government beyond September 30, 2025 and the government is effectively shut down. We are hopeful that our government will resolve this issue quickly.
As communicated yesterday, while the University of Washington has liquidity to navigate a short term shutdown, current federal policy volatility may present a range of outcomes that could differ from previous federal shutdowns we’ve experienced. Should a shutdown extend beyond two weeks, the University may take measures to reduce operations and communicate accordingly.
How will we continue to share information during a federal shutdown?
Award Specific:
Award specific communications are set up in SAGE, and Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will forward this to the PI and eGC1 Administrative Contact.
If subawards are issued on any grant/contract with a stop work order, the OSP subawards team is putting into place necessary actions to suspend. You do not need to submit a subaward request to do this.
General information from a specific agency:
Agency specific information is being collected and will be posted to the UW Office of Research 2025 Federal Shutdown webpage as we learn more.
If you don’t hear anything specific from your sponsor, review the following General Guidance.
General Guidance
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 and GCA will continue with business as usual within the constraints created by unavailable federal sponsor systems and staff.
OSP’s and GCA’s goals are to process items received to the extent possible.
If a shutdown is prolonged, OSP may return requests that cannot be processed to the department until the shutdown is over.
Federal Sponsor Applications
Use the sponsor’s posted sponsor deadlines to calculate your GIM 19 deadline until further notice.
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.
If a PI chooses to use this time to refine the scope of work and delay submission until sponsor systems are back up, they may do so at their own risk. In this case, the PI should contact their OSP reviewer and request OSP return their eGC1.
Awards
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Federal awards will not be issued during the federal shutdown.
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Awards that were received by the UW prior to the shutdown can continue to be processed.
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Awards that have been issued a UW Workday Award number can begin or continue work unless notification was received from the sponsor such as a “stop work” order or suspension notice.
- Cooperative agreements could be affected if federal participation is required, but not available.
Advance Spend
GCA will continue to process ADV requests for federal awards. As with all advance spending, the department assumes the risk of nonpayment on expenditures incurred during the advance time period. Please see updated Federal Advance Spend Guidance.
Extensions
For existing SAGE Award Modification Extension requests that require processing in sponsor systems, OSP will review and hold onto the MOD. The OSP reviewer will add a note in the Comments and History section until sponsor notification/approval processes are available. Please hold onto any new requests you may have until federal sponsor systems and staffing are available.
Campus can continue to submit Award Modifications in SAGE for Temporary Internal Extensions. OSP and GCA will continue to process these requests.
Post Award
GCA will continue to process and submit sponsor invoices, reports, draws and closeouts per usual, to the extent sponsor systems are available to do so.
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.
Please forward any communications received related to a shutdown and your federal awards to osp@uw.edu.
Thank you,
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Finance
Resources
- Council on Governmental Relations (COGR): Considerations for a Federal Government Shutdown