Key Dates

Related Announcements

NOT-OD-23-022 - OMB Single Audit Extension for Recipients in Major Disaster Areas (Alaska, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Puerto Rico)

NOT-OD-22-221 - Reminder: NIH Natural Disaster Policy – Hurricanes Fiona and Ian

Issued by

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)

Purpose

This notice details additional administrative flexibilities issued December 23, 2022, by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for applicants and recipients located in a county or parish where a major disaster has been declared under the Stafford Act as a result of Hurricane Fiona, Hurricane Ian, and the Alaska flooding and landslides. NIH previously issued NOT-OD-22-221 and NOT-OD-23-022 which provided the short-term administrative, financial management, and audit requirements allowed under the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 and adopted by 45 CFR 75.  These flexibilities are time limited to 90 days after the OMB memo was issued and will therefore end on March 23, 2023. Specific policy flexibilities are detailed below.

No-cost extensions on expiring awards (NIH GPS 8.1.2.1 and 2 CFR 200.308)

• NIH recipients whose awards were active as of September 18, 2022, and expired on or before December 31, 2022, were permitted to extend the final budget period of the previously approved project period one time for a period of up to 12 months beyond the original completion date shown in the Notice of Award.  Any late notification of the initial no-cost extension provided by the NIH Standard Terms of Award requires prior approval.
• Project-specific financial and performance reports will be due 120 days following the end date of the extension.
• Any additional extensions require prior approval. Recipients should contact the Program Official and Grants Management Specialist listed on the Notice of Award to discuss, as appropriate.

Abbreviated non-competitive continuation requests (NIH GPS 8.4.1.1 and 2 CFR 200.308)

• For continuation (Type 5) requests scheduled to come in from September 18, 2022, to December 31, 2022, from projects with planned future support, NIH will accept a brief statement from recipients to verify that they are in a position to: 
  • resume or restore their project activities; and 
  • accept a planned continuation award. 
• NIH will examine the need to extend this approach on subsequent continuation award start dates as recipients have an opportunity to assess the situation.

Allowability of salaries and other project activities. (NIH GPS 7.9.1 and 2 CFR 200.403, 2 CFR 200.404, 2 CFR 200.405)

• Remember that, in general, expenditure of award funds to continue paying salaries and fringe benefits to researchers during any period when no work is performed under the award is unallowable.
• Due to the limited funding resources under each federal award, recipients must exhaust other available funding sources to sustain their workforce and implement necessary steps to save overall operational costs (such as rent negotiations) during the public health emergency period.
• NIH recipients may continue to charge salaries and benefits to currently active NIH awards consistent with the recipients’ policy of paying salaries (under unexpected or extraordinary circumstances) from all funding sources, Federal and non-Federal. 
• Other costs may be charged to NIH awards as necessary to resume activities supported by the award, consistent with applicable Federal cost principles and the benefit to the project. 
• Recipients must maintain appropriate records and cost documentation as required by 2 CFR 200.302 –Financial management and standards for financial management systems and 2 CFR 200.333 – Retention requirement of records to substantiate the charging of any salaries and other project activities costs related to interruption of operations or services. 
• NIH will evaluate the recipient’s ability to resume the project activity in the future and the appropriateness of future funding, as done under normal circumstances—based on subsequent progress reports and other communications with the recipient. 
• Recipients should not assume additional funds will be available should the charging of cancellation or other fees result in a shortage of funds to eventually carry out the event or travel. 

Allowability of Costs not Normally Chargeable to Awards (NIH GPS 7.9 and 2 CFR 200.403, 2 CFR 200.404, 2 CFR 200.405)

• Recipients who incur costs related to the cancellation of events, travel, or other activities necessary and reasonable for the performance of the award, or the pausing and restarting of grant funded activities due to the public health emergency, can charge these costs to their award without regard to 2 CFR 200.403, Factors affecting allowability of costs, 2 CFR 200.404, Reasonable costs, and 2 CFR 200.405, Allocable costs. 
• Recipients should not assume additional funds will be available should the charging of cancellation or other fees result in a shortage of funds to eventually carry out the event or travel.
• Recipients must maintain appropriate records and cost documentation as required by 2 CFR 200.302 – Financial management and 2 CFR 200.333 – Retention requirement of records, to substantiate the charging of any cancellation or other fees related to interruption of operations or services. 

Prior approval requirement waivers (NIH GPS 8.1.1.2 and 2 CFR 200.407)

• As a reminder, NIH recipients maintain rebudgeting authority under the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 8.1.1.2 Cost-Related Prior Approvals, which states that “NIH prior approval is not required to rebudget funds for any direct cost item that the applicable cost principles identify as requiring the Federal awarding agency’s prior approval, unless the incurrence of costs is associated with or is considered to be a change in scope.”

Extension of financial, performance, and other reporting (NIH GPS 8.4.1 and 2 CFR 200.328, 2 CFR 200.329)

• If, due to the declared major disaster, recipients are unable to complete and submit annual or interim Research Performance Progress Reports or annual Federal Financial Reports by the scheduled due date, they may delay submission of these reports for up to six months beyond the normal due date.
• Recipients must contact the assigned Grants Management and Program Official at the awarding NIH Institute or Center to let them know the reports will be late, even if by phone, and the NIH staff will document the file until the recipient is able to submit the request electronically.
• Although NIH will accept these late reports, we will delay issuing grant awards until the required reports are submitted and accepted by NIH. This does not prevent the institution from receiving disaster relief supplemental funding if those funds become available.
• See below for details related to Extension of Closeout Requirements.

Extension of currently approved Facilities and Administration (F&A/indirect cost) rates (NIH GPS 7.4 and 2 CFR 200.414)

• For recipient institutions whose current Federally approved F&A rates are close to expiring (i.e., in the next several months, but less than a year from now), NIH will allow recipients in the affected areas to continue to use the current Federally approved indirect cost rates (predetermined, fixed, or provisional rates) to recover their F&A/indirect costs on Federal awards for one additional year without submission of an indirect cost proposal.
• The cognizant agency for indirect costs, typically Cost Allocation Services for NIH recipients, may approve recipient requests for an extension of the F&A/indirect cost rate proposal submission (for up to one year) to finalize the current rates and establish future rates.
• Recipients should contact Cost Allocation Services for more information. 

Extension of Closeout Requirements (NIH GPS 8.6 and 2 CFR  200.344)

• NIH will allow affected recipients to delay submission of any pending final financial, performance and other reports required by the terms and conditions of award for the closeout of expired projects, provided that the recipient provide the IC with the notice as soon as feasible. This delay may not exceed one year without prior approval from the appropriate IC grants management staff.

Extension of Single Audit submission (NIH GPS 8.4.3 and 2 CFR 200.512)

• A six-month extension is granted for all single audit submissions, as required under Subpart F of 2 CFR 200.512, that cover recipients in affected areas and have due dates between September 18, 2022 and December 31, 2022. 
• This extension does not require individual recipients and subrecipients to seek approval for the extension by NIH for audit; however, recipients and subrecipients should maintain documentation of the reason for the delayed filing. 

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OPERA)
[email protected]