Email Updates

The OVPRI plans to send weekly email updates on Wednesdays.

The following message was sent to graduate students, tenure track and research faculty, department grant administrators, OVPRI centers and institutes, core facility staff, Government and Community Relations, Office of General Counsel, and OVPRI staff on Wednesday, June 18.

New F&A model under development, ongoing legal action

Grant terminations: 29, totaling $7.26 million
Note: Two terminations reclassified as "stop work orders" and one new termination received
Relevant agencies: NIH, NEA, NEH, and NSF
Active appeals: 23
Terminations lifted: 2 (NIH) 
These figures are current as of 6/25.

National organizations, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (the University of Oregon is a member), representing America’s academic, medical, and independent research institutions, have come together to propose a more efficient and transparent model for how the federal government reimburses universities and other research institutions for the indirect costs (also known as facilities and administrative, or F&A) associated with conducting research on behalf of the American people. This effort is ongoing following townhall webinars for stakeholders last week. UO leaders continue to monitor and contribute to these discussions. We anticipate that changes to indirect costs will be part of the fiscal year 2026 federal budget.

Agency updates

National Science Foundation

On June 20, 2025, a federal judge in the district of Massachusetts ruled in favor of the Association of American Universities (the UO is a member) that the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) 15% cap on indirect costs was arbitrary and capricious. The decision found NSF’s policy unlawful. While NSF has 60 days to appeal the decision, the agency sent a notice to principal investigators and university administrators that it does not intend to implement the policy at this time.

Department of Defense

As we reported in our June 18 message, a temporary restraining order (TRO) has been placed against the implementation of a Department of Defense (DOD) 15% F&A cap. Additionally, DOD will pause efforts to renegotiate rate caps for existing awards to institutions of higher education for the duration of the TRO.DOD plans to include language in new grants indicating that if the F&A policy is allowed to go into effect, it will apply for the life of the award (i.e., to the date after June 12 that the new award was issued). If you are asked or required to acknowledge receipt of such language, do not sign attestations and please consult OVPRI and the Office of General Counsel before replying.

NIH

As noted in last week’s message, on June 16 a federal judge in the District of Massachusetts ruled that it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. The administration requested a stay on the ruling, but this was denied, which means that the June 16 ruling stands—that NIH’s termination of the grants was illegal and void. We expect NIH to send official notice of this ruling at some point soon. For those with terminated NIH awards, we will share any information we receive from NIH regarding your terminated grant.In our understanding, the ruling only applies to the grants that were included in the initial court case. We hope NIH will take a more expansive approach and rescind all terminations.As a brief reminder, NIH announced that the 2024 NIH Public Access Policy, as detailed in Notice NOT-OD-25-047, will become effective on July 1. This represents an accelerated timeline from the previously communicated December 31 deadline. Please review how this policy may affect your research on the OVPRI website.