Changes continue to be implemented by federal agencies at a rapid pace. Below are two updates with respect to NIH. If you have any questions about these specific matters or any other developments, we encourage you to reach out directly to the Office for Research Administration at iuprop@iu.edu.
Indirect Costs
Late last Friday, the NIH issued NOT-OD-25-068 Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates. This notice would have required an indirect rate of 15% indirect cost rate be applied to all future NIH awards as well as to any active NIH awards as of February 10.
Late yesterday, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts issued a temporary restraining order in the case of Association of American Medical Colleges, et. al., v. National Institutes of Health prohibiting the NIH from taking any steps to implement NOT-OD-25-068 until further order is issued by the court. As such, this requirement is not currently applicable and the awarded F&A rate for active NIH awards (including pass-through) will continue to be applied. Proposals submitted to ORA for NIH funding should continue to reflect the appropriate full indirect cost rate consistent with IU’s Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement.
The Office for Research Administration (ORA) will continue to closely monitor this case and share any future developments.
No Cost Extensions
NIH Standard Terms of Award include the provision for grantees to extend the final budget period of a previously approved project period one time for a period of 1 to 12 months, without additional NIH funds, and without prior approval. This action, called a No-Cost Extension (NCE), must be taken before the project period ends. The NCE request triggers an automated email notification to the grants management specialist and no further action is required by the recipient.
Starting last week, the functionality in eRA Commons required to inform NIH when exercising the NCE option has stopped working. ORA has made several attempts to work with the eRA Commons help desk to address this issue. NIH is aware of the issue as this has impacted other institutions as well.
NIH has yet to offer any statement on why the functionality for exercising automatic NCE’s in eRA Commons is not currently available, so it is unknown whether this is a system bug or a change in policy. Please continue to route your NIH NCE requests to ORA. ORA will directly contact the appropriate Grants Management Specialist and Program Officer to inform them that IU is electing to exercise the extension option and request an updated Notice of Award.
Please continue to reach out to research@iu.edu or to this online contact form with questions and/or ideas.
Sincerely,
Steve Martin
Associate Vice President, Research Administration