Dear Colleagues,
As President Granberg and university leadership shared in emails to the GW community, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a significant reduction to the indirect cost rate that would apply to all new and existing grants.
Allocation of indirect costs is the longstanding practice by which the government reimburses grantees at a negotiated rate for mission-critical activities that cannot be easily allocated to individual research projects. These costs include regulatory compliance efforts, laboratory and building maintenance and improvements, libraries, insurance, utilities, custodial services, human resources, accounting, procurement, and research administration.
As noted in the community-wide messages, reductions in the indirect cost rate would amount to a significant cut in NIH funding and would disrupt the ability of grantees like GW to continue their life-saving research into biomedical and public health challenges.
NIH’s indirect cost rate announcement is the subject of litigation—including a lawsuit that GW has joined as a co-plaintiff. A nationwide temporary restraining order (TRO) has been issued that prevents federal agencies from implementing or enforcing the change. Investigators should continue to utilize GW’s federally-negotiated indirect cost rate when developing and submitting NIH proposals, as well as for existing awards.
We are also aware that the automatic No-Cost Extensions (NCE) link in eRA Commons has been deactivated. We have not yet received an official explanation from NIH regarding why this is the case. There is a very real possibility that NIH will no longer allow a request for a one-time automatic no-cost extension at the end of the budget period. Principal investigators (PIs) must not assume that no-cost extension requests will be approved.
Additionally, please be reminded of the following:
- Researchers preparing federal proposals or reports should continue to adhere to all previously announced deadlines, and PIs with active awards should continue with planned activities unless otherwise notified (e.g. by a sponsor or the Office of Sponsored Projects, OSP).
- We encourage you to remain cognizant of potential changes to solicitation requirements.
PIs should immediately forward any stop-work orders or other relevant notice from your sponsor to OSP at [email protected]. - While impacts on federal grant funding remain unclear, we encourage prudent spending of non-compensation grant funds to ensure that funds remain to cover compensation expenses. We do not anticipate any immediate disruptions to payroll, particularly research staff compensation.
- To help avoid any delays in invoicing or reporting, please make sure all allowable expenses are posted in a timely fashion.
- If you anticipate that any aspect of your sponsored project might be impacted by an executive action, please engage your school's associate dean for research for additional guidance.
Detailed guidance for PIs is being updated regularly and can be found on the Federal Transition Updates 2025 webpage.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will continue to communicate guidance on the impact of federal actions on GW’s research enterprise. Please reach out with questions or share feedback by emailing [email protected].
Thank you for your continued partnership and commitment to the university’s academic and research missions.
Sincerely,
Robert H. Miller
Interim Vice Provost for Research
Vivian Gill Distinguished Research Professor and Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology