Notice of Special Terms and Conditions for NIH Hurricane Sandy Recovery Awards

Notice Number: NOT-OD-13-106

Update: The following update relating to this announcement has been issued:

• July 30, 2014 - Notice of Annual Reporting Requirements and Revised Financial Closeout Requirements for NIH Administrative Supplements Awarded to Recover Losses Due to Hurricane Sandy under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act. See Notice NOT-OD-14-112.

Release Date: August 28, 2013

RFA-OD-13-199: NIH Administrative Supplements to Recover Losses Due to Hurricane Sandy Under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act - Non-Construction (Admin Supp)

RFA-OD-13-005: Limited Competition: Restoration of New Investigator Pilot Projects Adversely Affected by Hurricane Sandy (R21)

RFA-OD-13-006: Limited Competition: Shared Instrumentation for Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief (S10)

RFA-OD-13-007: Limited Competition: Extramural Research Facilities Restoration Program: Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief (C06)

RFA-OD-13-008: Limited Competition: Restoring Research Resources Lost Due to Hurricane Sandy (R24)

RFA-ES-13-008: Hazardous Materials Worker Health and Safety Training (U45) Administrative Supplements for Hurricane Sandy Response and Recovery

NOT-OD-13-013: Notice of Assistance Available to Institutions Impacted by Super Storm Sandy

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

During October 2012, Super Storm Sandy hit the U.S. northeast coast and caused extensive damage to NIH-funded research and researchers in the area. Since that time NIH has offered limited competition awards to grantees in the FEMA-declared Hurricane Sandy major disaster states using funds appropriated under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act ( DRAA ; Public Law 113-2), which included up to $149 million of supplemental funding for NIH to support recovery efforts at impacted institutions. This includes opportunities for new awards as well as administrative supplements to existing NIH awards.

The purpose of this Guide Notice is to inform the extramural community that due to the need for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to augment our existing controls to handle any additional risks that comes with disaster relief funding of this magnitude, NIH will provide additional monitoring to all Hurricane Sandy awards. NIH will also apply special terms and conditions to all Hurricane Sandy awards to ensure all requirements of the DRAA are met. A full list of these special terms and conditions is available at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/NIH_DRAA_Award_Terms.pdf. Additional Terms and Conditions specific to an individual Hurricane Sandy award may also be included on the Notice of Award.

Special Requirements of NIH Hurricane Sandy awards include:

• Maintaining records that identify the source and application of DRAA funds, and separately identify the expenditures for NIH awards under the DRAA.
• Quarterly programmatic and financial reporting detailing progress on the award
• Requirement of a separate Research Performance Progress Report on the anniversary of the award's budget start date
• Requirement to expend all awarded funds within a 24-month period
• Elimination of the option for no-cost extensions to the initial project period
• Limitation on the benefits of the grant award to all or part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared major disaster States, which are: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
• Reimbursement to NIH for any costs incurred that are subsequently reimbursed by the FEMA, under a contract for insurance, or by self-insurance.

In addition, administrative supplements awarded with DRAA funds must comply with the following requirements:

• Including specific information on the DRAA additional funding as part of the annual progress report(s) of the parent grant.
• Unless the parent grant is also awarded with DRAA funds, eliminating the ability for administrative supplement funds to be re-budgeted or carried over into the parent grant. Any DRAA funding remaining at the end of the funding period must be reported as an unobligated balance.
• Submitting separate closeout documents (Final Progress Report, Final Federal Financial Report, and Final Invention Statement) for the DRAA funding at the time the DRAA funding ends, even when the parent grant continues.
• Reporting on the additional funds provided in this award will also be required as part of normal reporting of the parent grant.

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
Telephone: 301-435-0949
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/natural_disasters.htm