Dear colleagues,

I hope that everyone enjoyed a restful long weekend.

There have been positive signs of NIH funding coming back to life this week, with some grant awards arriving at SPH. However, there have also been more news of cuts to research, and impacts to researchers and infrastructure (see the NSF and HHS). The words we use in our grants are being inspected, putting funding at risk. The proposed NIH restriction on indirect rates is on its way to court. We now wait for a national budget, the installation of new leaders, and judicial decisions.

Guidance from the university’s Office of Sponsored Programs remains unchanged. Any concerns by PIs about non-renewal of federal grant funding, stop work orders, or notices of funding “pauses” should be immediately 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. Check for updates on the University’s online resource for updates about the 2025 administration transition.

Here, I reiterate specific guidance on your research activities that we announced this week:

Existing awards:

  • We should continue with all funded work as planned
  • We should review budgets for current award years to make sure PIs have not built up too much of a balance. In recent years, NIH has been lenient about carryforward requests, recognizing that research was disrupted due to COVID.  However, in the present moment, the risk of losing carryforward funds is probably higher, and we are concerned that the higher the balance, the higher the risk.
  • We encourage PIs to check their spend rates (i.e., roughly 50% spent through 6 months, 75% through 9 months, etc.), aiming to use the funds awarded in the prescribed grant year.
  • For grants in their final year, PIs should not assume they will have access to any remaining funds beyond the award end date. Discuss with your Program Officers.
  • At the moment, there are no recommendations to scrub websites (projects, faculty profiles, programs) of content.
  • If you receive a communication indicating that certain activities must be paused or terminated on your projects, please reach out to Dean McClean to discuss before responding to Project Officials or federal agencies.

New submissions:

  • Grants proposing on-campus research should be submitted using the current negotiated F&A rate of 63.5%. In the budget justification, it is important to include the following sentence: Boston University requests our current federally negotiated rate, but we will accept the rate approved at the time of award. The purpose of this sentence is to make sure that the grant doesn’t get removed from consideration at any point in the process if the approved rate ends up changing to a rate other than 63.5%.

Broader financial resources

Regarding our broader financial resources, effective today, approval from the Associate Dean for Administration is required before engaging in external and discretionary spending, including but not limited to:

  • Engagement of external consultants
  • University-funded international travel
  • Off-site events and meetings
  • Cosmetic space renovations
  • Hiring of full-time and part-time staff (including temporary employees and student workers). Remember that the Intent to Engage Form must be properly submitted to each departmental Director of Administration for any such hiring requests.

We recognize that these measures may present challenges and a burden for faculty and staff, but they are necessary to maintain financial stability and ensure that resources are allocated strategically. Please direct any questions to Ira Lazic at iralazic@bu.edu.

Additional resources:

SPH’s Center for Health Data Science has has developed a tool to help researchers search for government datasets that have been removed: https://findlostdata.org/

Boston University has a contract with NCFDD, a provider of professional development activities to provide faculty, postdocs, and graduate students with the tools to increase their writing and research productivity. The resources focus on practical skills—navigating the academic landscape, managing time effectively, or building meaningful professional relationships.

To activate your personal NCFDD account and start accessing these resources, visit: NCFDD – Boston University Membership. Membership resources available to you include:

Public Safety has updated page on safety protocols, particularly in light of mandates that ICE and CBP may have https://www.bu.edu/safety/campus-safety/your-safety-is-our-priority/ and may be helpful guidance for students, staff and others.

As always, we deeply value all the members of our community and the organization we have built here at SPH. We are working diligently on behalf of our community and will share additional updates and guidance as soon as we are able.  In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions.

Finally, following the good attendance at last week’s discussion, we will be holding another virtual Open Forum for Faculty and Staff on Friday, February 21 at 12:00-1:00pm ET.

Thank you all everyday for the work you are doing.

Michael Stein
Dean ad interim
mdstein@bu.edu

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