|
Dear Colleagues, The Division of Research & Innovation (DORI) is currently tracking the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates (NOT-OD-25-068) that was released on Feb. 7, 2025. Per this NOT, the Office of the Director at NIH is notifying the scientific community that “there will be a standard indirect rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant.” According to this notice, the university would no longer be able to use our federally negotiated rate of 54% for organized research taking place on campus, or 26% for all sponsored programs taking place off campus effective today, February 10, 2025. Furthermore, this notice also affects NIH research education and training grants historically capped at 8%, increasing the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) rate to 15%. DORI is working diligently to provide a detailed assessment of the implications for Wayne State University’s research enterprise. During FY2024, funding from NIH represented almost 70% of our federally sponsored research awards. As you might imagine, such a drastic reduction in WSU’s F&A rate will reduce institutional revenue by tens of millions of dollars, thus impairing our capacity to pay critical, required expenses associated with facilities operational costs and debt service, research personnel, clinical trials, grants management, regulatory compliance, core research facilities and services, equipment, and supplies that support the work of our researchers. Please know that university leadership is working around the clock to engage our elected officials, APLU, Lewis-Burke Associates, Council on Governmental Relations, and other professional networks. We were in touch over the weekend with elected officials exploring options for possible actions. At the request of the Michigan Attorney General’s office, we provided evidence over the weekend to support the legal action expected to be filed this morning in the federal court in Massachusetts. DORI’s Sponsored Program Administration (SPA) has run an analysis of NIH grant applications with submission deadlines this week. There are no applications due today. We also expect to receive guidance regarding application submissions from Lewis-Burke & Associates later today. Please keep in mind that grant budgets are not considered in application review and scoring. Once scored and identified for funding, NIH grants management specialists can apply the updated F&A rate at the time of setting up an award. There are 16 applications that have submission deadlines later this week. Individual PIs will be contacted by DORI staff to discuss and determine the most prudent course of action in light of the guidance we receive and the ongoing circumstances that unfold today. Of note, SPA will also work directly with our PIs who have grant submission deadlines later this month to explore any changes that may need to be made prior to submission. As you know, DORI has moved to expand our capacity to effectively communicate the rapidly changing federal funding landscape, including (1) campus-wide emails, (2) newly created Teams group for current PIs, (3) weekly Friday meetings to provide updates to our associate deans for research and center/institute directors, and (4) a landing page on our website to serve as a repository of information regarding federal funding updates: https://research.wayne.edu/spa/usadministrationimpact. These and other university resources are, also archived on Today@Wayne. While we may not always have a precise answer to many of the excellent questions we are receiving from our NIH funded investigators, SPA will leverage every bit of professional expertise and the contacts at our disposal to pursue answers to them as quickly as feasible. In closing, I want you to know that we are in this together with you and working as best we can for you. Sincerely, Ezemenari M. Obasi, Ph.D. |
|