Office of the President

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

Dear members of the VCU research community,

You may be aware that, at the federal level, the Office of Management and Budget recently announced updates to the federal Uniform Grants Regulation. We recognize that these proposed changes could significantly impact how federal awards will be managed and administered across higher education.

Please be assured that our leadership team is partnering with professional organizations, including the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), Council on Government Relations, Association of American Medical Colleges, and others, to assess the impact that these changes would have on our research enterprise. APLU has summarized some major issues that could impact member institutions. As we navigate this transition, understanding your perspectives, questions and concerns is crucial in shaping VCU’s next steps.

We invite our research community to share your feedback on this proposal. There are two ways to provide your insights:

1. OVPRI will host a virtual town hall/listening session on June 18 at 12 p.m. Register here to participate.
2. Complete this feedback form by no later than June 23.

VCU strongly supports academic freedom and your right to voice your opinions as a private citizen and expert in your field. At the same time, we must remind all employees to remain compliant with university policy. Under VCU’s "Communicating with Governmental Officials" administrative policy, specific rules apply to how we engage with federal and state officials:

• Personal Capacity Communications: If you choose to submit personal opinions or comments on these regulations, you may do so freely on your own time and using your own personal resources. However, you must ensure your personal opinions are not represented as VCU positions, and you cannot use VCU letterhead, VCU phone lines, or your official vcu.edu email account to submit them.
• Official VCU Positions & Comments: The President and the Office of Government Relations are solely responsible for developing and coordinating official university positions or formal comments on proposed federal and state regulations and policy.
• Professional Society Representation: If you are asked to submit comments or engage in advocacy regarding these grant regulations on behalf of a professional society or external organization, you must notify and coordinate with the VCU Office of Government Relations in advance.
• Note on Routine Grant Actions: As a reminder, this policy does not restrict routine, everyday technical interactions with your federal program officers regarding active, standard grant proposals or awarded projects.

We appreciate your patience and dedication to maintaining the highest standards of research integrity and compliance at VCU. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

If you have immediate questions regarding the “Communicating with Governmental Officials” policy, please contact the VCU Office of Government Relations.

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

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.