Office of the President

The following message was sent to VCU/VCU Health research faculty and staff:

Dear colleagues,

As you may be aware, the federal government may enter a shutdown period tomorrow. As we continue to evaluate the impact that this may pose to the VCU research enterprise, please be aware of the following guidance to assist you during this time:

• Existing work on projects should continue, unless communication is received from the agency to the contrary. Please pay very close attention to all communication received for the time being as VCU's response to these notices will need to be swift. Any such communication should also be sent promptly to the Division of Sponsored Programs and Grants and Contracts Accounting. Drawdowns will resume once federal systems are online and available again.
• Particularly for those with federal contracts, communication regarding specific contingency plans could be expected.
• Proposal submissions should continue as planned where possible, particularly submissions for the October 6 deadline. While there could be a deadline extension issued retroactively once the government reopens, this is not a certainty and should not be expected.
• Administrative actions/prior approval requests should continue to be requested in a timely fashion (although agency response from various staff and program officers will likely not occur until reopen).
• Responses to our proposal submissions and prior approval requests will be limited as very few of our agency programmatic or administrative contacts will be available for guidance and communication during the shutdown.

Guidance on individual agency plans during shutdown are hosted solely on each agency’s website. Should you need any assistance in finding any agency-specific guidance or should you encounter any challenges as a result of this potential shutdown, please do not hesitate to contact dirospa@vcu.edu.

As we receive guidance on individual projects, we will communicate that promptly to the affected individuals. 

Please feel free to contact DSP with any questions that you may have regarding your specific projects.

My best,

P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D.
Vice president for research and innovation

NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., has announced a unified strategy that aims to align federal priorities and funding approaches. Researchers are advised to review this new strategy during award application processes. The statement can be found here. 

The university is now certifying and accepting all federal awards. Faculty who have received new federal awards will no longer need to submit an Advanced Index Request Form to establish a new index. DSP/G&C are now completing all federal full award setups. Contact your school or unit research administrator with any questions regarding this process.

On July 18, 2025, a federal judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of the proposed 15% cap on Department of Defense indirect research funds. This nationwide preliminary injunction is significant but is not permanent. The OVPRI will continue to monitor any future filings for this case.

The university is closely monitoring the implementation of the new policy announced by the NIH: “Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications.” This policy states that: 

• NIH will only accept six new, renewal, resubmission, or revision applications from an individual Principal Investigator/Program Director or Multiple Principal Investigator for all council rounds in a calendar year
• NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants.

This policy applies to all activity codes except T activity codes and R13 Conference Grant Applications.

PIs should monitor and track their progress towards these submission limits. All proposals should continue to adhere to existing institutional submission guidelines.

As we learn more about this new NIH policy and other federal guidelines, we will continue to provide timely updates and guidance through email communication and on our federal funding updates webpage.