Executive Orders: Updates from the VPR

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Office of Sponsored Programs

Updates from the VPR

Research Expenditures Update

Posted at 10:00 am on March 21, 2025

Greetings to the �ϻ�� research community.

In light of the current uncertainty in federal funding, we would like to provide guidance to PIs' on actions and expenditures.

If you are a principal investigator on a federal grant and have received a termination notice or stop work order, please contact your OSP Post Award Administrator as soon as possible. OSP will assess the notice and determine the next steps. If �ϻ�� personnel or students are affected, coordinate with OSP and Human Resources as quickly as possible, but please do not take any action without contacting OSP and either Jay Stephens (jay.stephens@mso.umt.edu ) or Shawn Blair (shawn.blair@mso.umt.edu ) in Human Resources.

Note that the VPR, President Bodnar, and OCHE are working with the congressional delegation to minimize the impact changes to federal grants and contracts.

Please consider minimizing non-essential spending such as travel and conferences. If travel has already been approved and paid for, you may proceed. Unless you hear otherwise from OSP, please continue normal procurement of research supplies and equipment. For now, new hires on direct costs on grants and contracts are still moving forward, but if you have questions regarding grant-funded hires, please contact OSP.

The VPR and OSP are monitoring the potential impact of policy changes regarding IDCs. We are developing plans to maintain and conserve these funds to continue to support the research enterprise at �ϻ��.

For any additional questions about federal grants, you are encouraged to contact OSP.

You may also email your questions to the VPR at vpr@umontana.edu.

NIH Indirect Cost Rates

Posted at 3:15 pm on February 10, 2025

On February 7th, the it would reduce the indirect cost (IDC) rate on new and existing grant awards to 15%, with the goal of bringing the federal IDC rate in line with private funders and ensuring that “as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs.” As a result of this policy change, “ sued the Trump administration on Monday, asking a federal judge to temporarily block” this decision, as it “would substantially limit payments for research overhead to universities, medical centers, and other grant recipients,” jeopardizing ongoing operations and medical research, including clinical trials already underway. The Office of Research and Creative Scholarship is monitoring developments on this situation and will provide updates as we have them. Until we have more information, we will continue to use our current federally negotiated rate on all outgoing proposals.

Update regarding NSF Funding

Posted at 10:15 am on February 3, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

As you may have heard, on Friday a Federal Court issued a (TRO) directing Federal grant-making agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), to “...not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate...awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and...not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations, except on the basis of the applicable authorizing statutes, regulations, and terms.” The Department of Justice has determined that it applies to all NSF award recipients, not just states. In addition, as of this morning, all portals �ϻ�� uses to draw down funds from federal agencies are open. Our Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) is drawing down as many federal obligations as possible. It is also worth noting that last Friday, President Bodnar and OCHE put my office and OSP in touch with a staff member from Senator Daines’ office who put us in touch with the White House and subsequently someone from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Working with them, OSP provided a list of NSF projects that we determined are not excluded by the Executive Order, and we began drawing down funds over the weekend. It is good to know that OCHE and our Congressional Delegation are supporting our research efforts.

Sincerely,

Scott Whittenburg

Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship

DEI-related Executive Order: Letter from the VPR

Posted at 1:30 pm on January 27, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We know many of you have questions relating to recent Executive Orders, and the future of federally funded DEI work may be among these. While we await specific guidance from each of the various funding agencies, there are some general pieces of information that we can share now, to help you to manage potentially affected federal grants.

Pursuant to the issued on January 20, 2025, federal agencies are instructed to eliminate DEI considerations from their processes. This directive affects current and future Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) and award terms and conditions.
Several agencies have now provided clear guidance. All have used language stating that grantees shall cease and desist all DEIA activities required of their contracts or grants. This work may include but is not limited to: DEIA plan requirement, training, reporting, considerations for staffing, or any other direct or indirect contract or grant activity. This requirement does flow down to sub-awardees. The memos ask affected PIs to connect with their cognizant program officer, or similarly titled agency representative, immediately.
We are not yet certain how federal funding agencies will review active DEI-related grants that they have awarded, nor how they will decide what can continue. We do know that the availability of certain sources of funding will affect many of these grants. As we learn new information we will use this listserv to provide guidance so that PIs know how to proceed.
Once grants are identified by the funding agency, �ϻ�� will receive from the agency a formal modification to the award. We will review the modification, along with relevant experts around �ϻ��. We will then work with you, the PI, on next steps, which may vary from case to case. If you receive such communication directly from your cognizant program officer, please let your Research Administrator (RA) know immediately. If you receive a stop-work order, please notify your Research Administrator (RA) immediately.
Funds previously allocated for DEI activities on your grant must remain unspent and cannot be reallocated to other budget categories. As with all changes to scope of work, such a change would need to be approved by the cognizant Program Officer. Federal agencies are currently not approving fund reallocation, and there is potential for agencies to request the return of these funds to comply with the Executive Order.
If you have grant-related work completed prior to January 20, for which you have not invoiced, please work to submit your invoices as soon as possible.

We realize the impact that this will have on all of our research-engaged faculty, postdocs and students, and we will continue to work closely with �ϻ�� and college leadership to provide important updates, guidance and support. If you are seeking alternative sources of grant funding, please visit the Research Development Office. For further questions or assistance, please reach out to me via vpr@umontana.edu.