Dear colleagues,

It was a wonderful Convocation on Saturday. A large congratulations to our students and to our staff and faculty who took home well-deserved awards both at the Convocation and the day before during our awards ceremony in Hiebert.

I will be pausing these weekly notes on local and federal politics and policies for now. I will certainly write again if there are important administrative changes that I need to share with our community.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Just a bit of news for this week.

  • As the NSF 15% F&A cap is being challenged in court, NSF will not reject outright any new proposals submitted to NSF at negotiated F&A rates simply because they do not comply with the new rate cap policy. For NSF proposals, please include the University’s full negotiated F&A rate with this caveat included in the budget justification: “Boston University requests our current federally negotiated rate, but we will accept the rate approved at the time of award.”
  • NSF posted several updates to its FAQ page this week:
  • NIH announced that they are adding an additional level of approval for no-cost extensions (NCEs). Please confer with your grants managers to monitor your spend rates, particularly as your grants near their end dates.
  • The new policy on NIH Foreign Subawards is here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-104.html. New guidelines are being developed that will require foreign researchers to submit a grant application for review, like domestic researchers.  OSP and SPH research staff are still monitoring the new rules and looking for response options. PIs of grants with foreign subawards should consider the best options for continuing their projects without foreign subawards, discuss those options with their Program Officer, and update Dean McClean so that we can update our guidance to faculty accordingly.
  • The Office of Research maintains a detailed set of guidelines for managing early grant termination; accessing the guidance document requires a BU login. The link is also posted on the Office of Research 2025 Administration Transition Information & Resources. With support from OGC and SP, Boston University now filed its first four appeals of grant terminations.
  • Guidance from the University Office of Sponsored Programs remains unchanged. Any concerns by PIs should be directed to Dean McClean. PIs should not take personnel actions in response to anticipated federal funding disruptions without prior consultation with and approval from Sponsored Programs, which Dean McClean will help facilitate.
  • All labor requests, travel, and external consultants on unrestricted funds (school money) and discretionary funds continue to fall under the budget controls and a request for approval is required. Please direct any questions to the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, Dean Lazic at iralazic@bu.edu.

    Our Spring Community Day for staff and faculty will be happening this afternoon. I hope to see you there.

    The semester has ended. I am very proud of how our community handled the various twists and turns. More will be coming, I’m certain.

    I hope everyone finds some time over the next weeks and months to slow down and recuperate.

    Michael Stein
    Dean ad interim

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