Potential U.S. Federal Government Shutdown: Research Continuity Guidance

Updates from Federal Sponsors

Archive of updates on regulations, systems, and expectations from federal sponsors. 

These notifications have all been sent out to the CU_RES_ADMIN_L mailing list. See more information about subscribing to that list and other important research mailings

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has revised its regulatory requirements regarding training on RCR, now in effect. If you plan to submit a proposal for funding from the NSF, you may be impacted by this change.

Cornell will be rolling out a new online RCR course—developed specifically for Cornell researchers—in early fall 2023. Read more about this change and the new course

Dear colleagues,

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has published revisions to their core policy documents that represent significant changes for NSF researchers and administrators, effective January 30, 2023. Please review this message in its entirety and share broadly with all applicants and awardees affected by these changes.

Updated Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 23-1

This updated core policy document, applicable to all NSF proposals and awards, includes several updates of note to the research community. A summary of the most notable changes are below, with further discussion available via a recording of the December 2022 OSP Roundtable.

Changes effective January 30th:

  • All key personnel are required to certify by signing their Current & Pending and Biosketches that the information within is current, accurate, and complete. This certification is part of the updated required templates, now available in SciENcv and NSF’s webpage (see here and here).
    • Updates to the RASS Current & Pending tool to implement the new pdf templates is in progress.
    • SciENcv will now require researchers to certify the Current & Pending and Biosketch within SciENcv before a delegate will be able to download the document.
  •  An updated Current & Pending Support document must be provided to the Program Officer before an award is recommended for funding. Please work with your assigned Grant & Contract Officer to submit such requests.
  • All units must have on file a project specific plan regarding the safe and inclusive working environments for all projects that includes off-campus or off-site research. Grant & Contract Officers will be required to sign an attestation to NSF confirming the existence of this plan upon submission of the proposal. Certain solicitations require this plan to be included as a 2-page supplementary document uploaded to the proposal and reviewed as part of the Broader Impacts merit criteria. The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) has developed resources and guidance for this new requirement, including a plan template that can be completed with project-specific information.
  • All proposals must indicate on the cover page if there are any Potential Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC).

Other upcoming changes in 2023:

  • Effective July 31st, all faculty and other senior personnel named in the proposal and/or working on the project must complete Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) training, with Cornell responsible for enforcing compliance at award stage. Additional information regarding this new requirement will be provided to the Cornell research community in the coming months.
  • Effective October 12th, SciENcv must be used to generate all Current & Pending and Biosketches. The use of NSF fillable PDF forms will no longer be permitted.

Updated Standard NSF Award Terms & Conditions

NSF has published revisions to their entire suite of standard NSF Award Terms & Conditions to implement new Safe and Inclusive Work Environments for Off-Campus or Off-Site Research provisionsThe revised terms and conditions will apply to all new NSF awards and funding amendments to existing NSF awards made on or after January 30, 2023.

Researchers and administrators are also reminded that NSF is in their final stages of the move from FastLane to Research.gov, with the final day to submit proposals in FastLane Friday, January 27th.

If you have any questions about these changes, please contact your Grant and Contract Officer (see Who is my GCO? webpage for assignments and contact information) for further information or clarifications.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently made an announcement regarding federal fiscal year 2023 fiscal policies:

Salary Limits (i.e. Salary Cap): Effective January 1, 2023, the salary limitation of the Executive Level II rate has increased to $212,100, or a nine-month rate of $159.075. See NIH Policy Notice NOT-OD-23-056 for additional information. For awards issued in those years that were restricted to Executive Level II (see historical record found here - https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm), including competing awards already issued in federal fiscal year 2023, if adequate funds are available in active awards, and if the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, grantees may rebudget funds to accommodate the current Executive Level II salary level. However, no additional funds will be provided to these grant awards.

We now have a salary calculator on our website to assist you in budgeting and implementing this cap. If you have any questions about these changes, please contact your Grant and Contract Officer (see Who is my GCO? webpage for assignments and contact information) for further information or clarifications. For assistance in the management of the Salary Cap, especially if considering an adjustment retroactively to the effective date, please contact sfs-help@cornell.edu.   For information relating to salary adjustments please contact your unit HR representative.

Dear colleagues,

Effective January 25, 2023, all applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will be required to use grant application forms and application guide instruction “FORMS-H”. The current “FORMS-G” forms and instructions must be utilized for due dates on or before January 24, 2023.

Key changes to the forms reflect updates to implement NIH’s NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy, see NIH Policy Notice NOT-OD-22-189 for additional details.

NIH will publish a FORMS-H application guides (found here) no later than October 25, 2022, and will make the necessary updates to Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) (parent announcements found here) October 25-November 25, 2022.

During the transition period, both FORMS-G and FORMS-H application packages will be active simultaneously. Applicants must choose the appropriate application package for their due date when presented with both FORMS-G and FORMS-H application packages on the same FOA (see table below). Applications submitted using the incorrect application package for their due date may be withdrawn and removed from funding consideration.

If your intended due date is...

You must use...

On or before January 24, 2023, including:

  • Applications submitted for due dates on or before January 24, 2023
  • Applications submitted under NIH Late Policy 2-week window of consideration for intended due dates on or before January 24, 2023
  • Applications submitted by February 1, 2023 under NIH Continuous Submission Policyfor the January 7, 2023 AIDS intended due date

FORMS-G application package

On or after January 25, 2023, including:

  • Applications submitted for due dates on or after January 25, 2023
  • All application types (New, Resubmission, Renewal, Revision)
  • Applications submitted early for intended due dates on or after January 25, 2023

FORMS-H application package

Additional detailed information from NIH regarding this change can be found in NIH Policy Notice NOT-OD-22-195.

Please distribute widely to any that could benefit from this guidance. Please direct any questions to your Grant & Contract Officer (current assignments are located here).

Dear colleagues,

As communicated to Cornell stakeholders over the last year, the National Science Foundation is in the final stages of their full transition from FastLane to Research.gov. NSF recently published additional updates to this transition as summarized below;

· With all proposal and submission types soon fully supported in Research.gov, the system will be ready for the transition from FastLane for the preparation and submission of all new proposals in late January 2023, when the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1) is effective.

  • The last day to submit new proposals and new supplemental funding requests in FastLane is January 27, 2023.
  • The ability to submit proposal file updates and budget revisions in FastLane will be September 29, 2023.
  • The last day to access and download/print FastLane submitted and in-progress proposals will be September 29, 2023.

· Supplemental funding requests including Career-Life Balance requests can now be prepared in Research.gov.

Additional guidance about the use of Research.gov for proposal submission can be found here. Please direct any questions Research.gov to your Grant & Contract Officer (current assignments are located here).

Published on: Wednesday, January 18, 2023 - 2:54pm