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Division of Research

Resources

Federal Funding Updates

The UH Division of Research will continue to update this webpage with resources for recent and upcoming changes to proposals, awards, and agency operations during the federal administration transition. Please submit any questions pertaining to these federal funding updates through the question box at the bottom of this page.

Presidential Actions: For up-to-date information on White House Executive Orders

AAAS provides an FY 25 R&D Dashboard to track science appropriations.

Proposals

Announcements for funding opportunities may be revoked or changed. As you are preparing to submit a proposal, check back frequently whether the announcement is still available and/or has changed.

The changes we are currently seeing may affect funding announcements, proposal deadlines, review committee meeting schedules, award reporting requirements, and other grant-related activities. However, plan for currently announced proposal deadlines and do not assume they will be changed.

Awards

For federal projects already funded, continue your work as planned unless you receive a stop work order from your sponsor. Report any official communications from your sponsor that may impact your award to doraward@central.uh.edu. Since agencies have started to pause review panels, we expect delays in new awards as agencies work to resume operations.

Review your grant agreement. Closely monitor your award budget. Anticipated funding is subject to availability of funding and is not guaranteed. 

Agency Updates

An Executive Order "DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY” COST EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE" was issued on February 26, 2025 that requires each agency, in consultation with the agency's DOGE Team Lead, to “review all existing covered contracts and grants and, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, terminate or modify (including through renegotiation) such covered contracts and grants to reduce overall Federal spending or reallocate spending to promote efficiency and advance the policies of my Administration. This process shall commence immediately and shall prioritize the review of funds disbursed under covered contracts and grants to educational institutions (emphasis added) and foreign entities for waste, fraud, and abuse. Each Agency Head shall complete this review within 30 days of the date of this order."

OMB

DOE
ED

EPA

  • NEW Science reported that the EPA ordered staff to cancel research grants (Science: April 21, 2025)

HRSA

  • (February 3, 2025) HRSA PIs should have received the "Notice of Court Order," which states that "Federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders." Continue your work as planned unless you receive a stop work order (from either the agency or the prime recipient) specific to an award.  

IMLS

  • NEW Staff from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency focused on awarding grants for libraries and museums, have been put on administrative leave. UH Libraries and other groups (Public Art, possibly Blaffer Art Museum) have received funding from IMLS in the past. (NPR: March 31)

NEH

NIH

NSF

  • NEW NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan published a Statement of NSF priorities on April 18, announcing that "[r]esearch projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities." Following this announcement, the NSF froze new NSF awards and started to terminate existing awards, as reported in a Nature article. 
  • NSF slashes graduate fellowship program (Science: April 8, 2025)

View previous updates »

Other Resources

Questions?

 

FAQs

Does the 15% IDC rate apply to NIH proposal budgets as well as current awards?

We advise using the rate requested in the RFP, as the announcement made no reference to pending proposal submissions. NIH may request a revised budget, or simply reduce the awarded budget, when an award is made at the 15% IDC rate. (A judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on February 11, which will be in effect until further order, meaning that the NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates (NOT-OD-25-068) cannot be implemented until the TRO is lifted.)

I want to start purchasing equipment on a current award. If the award is canceled, I would not be able to pay for the equipment. Should I include a contingency clause for federal funding adjustment, that is, a clause that would give UH the right to cancel the order prior to fulfillment or return the equipment?

Inserting the financial contingency language would be inappropriate and probably unenforceable legally. Our suggestion is to hold off on entering into financial commitments that may be undercut by losses of funding. If we have no choice but to enter into such a commitment it has to be with a buyer beware approach on UH's part.

Updated April 23, 2025