[ Email | Share ] As Americans await the uncertain consequences of a shuttered federal government, university leaders are wondering how deeply the shutdown will affect campus programs that depend upon federal support.
Right now, they say, there’s not much to do but watch and wait.
“It’s something everyone is very concerned with,” said Melissa Edwards, the director of research communications for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. “It’s frustrating because we just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Edwards said current federal grants and contracts to this point are largely unaffected.
But for applications still going through the various federal “pipelines,” uncertainty rules the day.
The activities of federal agencies that supply research funding have been frozen, which includes agency websites and all other regular points of contact.
“For the duration of the funding lapse,” said the National Institutes of Health website prior to the shutdown, “NIH extramural employees will be prohibited from working (remotely or in the office). Consequently, there will be no access to voicemail, email, fax or postal mail during this period. … It is recommended that you delay sending such communications until after operations resume.”
The website also discourages researchers from sending new grant applications and indicates that the Web-based system used to submit grant-work progress reports will be down until an agreement to end the shutdown is reached.
Additionally, “No NIH grant awards will be processed for the duration of the funding lapse,” the website said.
The National Science Foundation put up similar notices on its website.
“We sincerely regret this inconvenience,” the NSF said. “Once normal operations resume, NSF will issue guidance regarding any funding opportunities that have a deadline or target date that occurs during the government shutdown.”
Edwards said the shutdown has left some campus grant-seekers unable to check the status of already submitted applications and worried that an extended shutdown will create longer-term delays or complications for future proposals.
She said the uncertainty makes it difficult to pinpoint the total dollar amount of grants that could be affected or delayed with a long-term shutdown.
Robin Kaler, the associate chancellor for public affairs, said the shutdown has not yet had a major impact on the university’s non-research programs that use federal money.
“Pell grants have largely been received and we don’t anticipate disruptions to students,” she said, “and the university has not been told to withhold spending on existing grants and contracts.”
She said the biggest worry right now is the uncertainty the shutdown causes.
“The longer it takes to get this resolved the likelihood of a significant disruption increases, and the longer it will take to return to normal activity,” she said.
