We are beginning to receive guidance from external funding sponsors on communicating COVID-19 impacts to projects’ scopes of work. We have also heard from several on campus that for most projects, the shutdown has been an inconvenience, but is not expected to impact their ability to deliver what was promised over the course of the project year. If you are asked by faculty, or are aware of significant impacts to externally funded sponsored projects, we have documented below guidance for you to share. Please note, specific requests/directions from sponsors take precedence over the information outlined below.
Generally, changes to the Statement of Work or timeline make it necessary to communicate with sponsors and in most cases require prior approval. The necessary communication will vary based on sponsor, funding mechanism (e.g., grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts) or whether MSU has an existing award or a new award is received.
- Awards funded via contracts are most likely to need more immediate communication when a change in scope or additional time is needed.
- Awards funded via grants with a current project period end date beyond July 2020*1 may be able to wait to communicate until we return to normal operations, or by early June 2020, whichever comes first. Sometimes communicating with a program officer is the first step, but typically, an official communication through the grants or contracts officer is required.*2
- Notification of significant events is normally expected at the time of the event and some sponsors may still expect that.
If an externally funded project is significantly impacted by the more limited access to laboratories and other facilities, restrictions on in-person human subjects, or other COVID-19 impacts:
- Check the expectations for the award in the award document.
- Please communicate the potential impacts to the Contract and Grant Administration (CGA) Awards Group via email as soon as practicable, prioritizing the contracts first, at awards@cga.msu.edu. The Awards Group*3 will review your specific scenario and work with you on next steps.
For more information:
We encourage you to keep the CGA Awards Group aware of specific guidance you receive directly from sponsors (if OSP, CGA, or BC*3 are not copied).
Thanks for your help and stay safe.
*1 If the project is getting close to the project end date and there are impacts, it may be time to request a no-cost extension (or more time and supplemental funding).
*2 We will be updating general agency advisory information as we receive it on our website. Most Federal agencies are trying to be flexible and we continue to learn more related to Federal requirements weekly. We have heard from one Federal sponsor (NIH) that they understand that in light of the current situation, notification can happen when practicable, which we are interpreting as when we know the specific impacts and when they will be resolved. At least two sponsors have given preliminary acknowledgement that administrative supplements may be a possibility. As you would anticipate, industry and other non-Federal agreements need case-by-case review for terms.
*3 The CGA Awards Group will communicate with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) or Business-CONNECT (BC) as needed.
