May 20, 2025
NIH ESI Extension  
On May 20,2025 the  National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced automatic extension of Early-Stage Investigator (ESI) eligibility. This extension addresses delays impacting grant application submissions, peer review, or award processing timelines between January 1, 2025, and May 31, 2025, and seeks to mitigate their effects on the biomedical research community.  Who Is Impacted This Notice provides information about an extension of ESI eligibility for the following investigators: 

• Investigators whose last submission date for a new/resubmission application, based on ESI eligibility, was October/November 2024 will be granted a three-receipt cycle extension (roughly twelve additional months). The last submission as an ESI will be October 2025 

• Individuals whose last submission date for a new/resubmission application, based on ESI eligibility, was February/March 2025 will be granted a two-receipt cycle extension (roughly eight additional months). The last submission as an ESI will be October 2025 

• Individuals whose last submission date for a new/resubmission application, based on ESI eligibility, will be June/July 2025 will be granted a one-receipt cycle extension (roughly four additional months). The last submission as an ESI will be October 2025 

No action is required from investigators to receive this extension; thus, no ESI extension request submission is necessary. To aid potential applicants in determining whether they are eligible for the extension, the following examples are provided:  

Example 1: For individuals whose eligibility ended with the October/November 2024 due dates, the extension would allow them to apply for the R01 in June/July 2025 or October/November 2025. 

Example 2: For individuals whose eligibility ended with February/March 2025 due dates, the extension would allow them to apply in June/July 2025 or October/November 2025. 

Example 3: For individuals whose eligibility would normally end with the June/July 2025 due dates, the extension would allow them to apply in October/November 2025. This extension does not preclude investigators from requesting additional time for qualifying life events (e.g., medical leave, caregiving) under existing policies. 

May 7, 2025
Updated NIH Processes for No-Cost Extensions 
This notice alerts the extramural community that NIH has temporarily disabled the No-Cost Extension functionality in eRA Commons. The Director of NIH has directed NIH staff to review all existing grants and cooperative agreements to ensure that NIH awards do not fund off-mission activities or projects. Therefore, temporarily disabling the NCE functionality in eRA Commons will allow NIH staff to review and assess all NCE requests to confirm that the activities proposed during the extension align with the NIH mission and agency priorities.At this time, all requests for NCEs must be submitted as a prior approval request in eRA Commons, for NIH review and approval. Requests for activities that do not align with the NIH mission and agency priorities will not be approved.

May 1, 2025
New NIH Foreign Subaward Structure Enhances Integrity, Accountability, Oversight, and National Security of NIH Funded ResearchThe NIH has updated its policy on foreign subawards, as detailed in Notice NOT-OD-25-104, released on May 1, 2025. This change aims to enhance transparency and national security in NIH-funded research involving foreign collaborations.

Key Points:

• New Award Structure: NIH will implement a structure where foreign subawards are issued as independent awards linked to the primary grant. This allows NIH to track funds individually while the primary institution reports scientific progress collectively.
• Implementation Timeline: The new structure is expected to be in place by September 30, 2025, before Fiscal Year 2026.
• Applicability: The policy applies prospectively to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements (new, renewal, and non-competing continuation) to domestic and foreign entities. Existing awards will not be retroactively revised.(Grants.gov)
• Restrictions: Effective immediately, NIH will not issue awards that include subawards to foreign entities. Prior approval requests to add new foreign components or subawards to ongoing projects will also not be accepted.
• Exceptions: The policy does not apply to funds provided to support foreign consultants or the purchase of unique equipment or supplies from foreign vendors.
• Future Plans: NIH intends to expand this policy to domestic subawards for consistency.(Grants.gov)

For more details, refer to the full notice: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-104.html

April 21, 2025
Notice of Civil Rights Term and Condition of Award. NOT-OD-25-090
The NIH has issued Notice NOT-OD-25-090, introducing a new Civil Rights term and condition for all NIH grants, cooperative agreements, and other transaction (OT) awards issued on or after April 21, 2025. This term supersedes Section 4.1.2 “Civil Rights Protections” of the NIH Grants Policy Statement and applies to domestic recipients of new, renewal, supplement, or continuation awards.Grants.govKey Provisions:

• Compliance with Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws: Recipients must adhere to all applicable federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin.
• Prohibitions on Certain Activities:
  • Recipients must not operate programs that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA), or “discriminatory equity ideology” in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.
  • Recipients must not engage in “discriminatory prohibited boycotts,” defined as actions that refuse or limit commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or entities doing business with or in Israel.
• Certification Requirement: By accepting the award, recipients certify compliance with the above provisions.
• Enforcement: NIH reserves the right to terminate awards and recover funds if recipients violate these terms.

This policy does not apply to foreign and international organizations. For further details, please refer to the full notice: NOT-OD-25-090.

• NIH rate change blocked by federal judge – February 10, 2025 
  A Federal Judge issued a restraining order that placed a temporary pause nationwide on plans by the NIH to cap indirect cost rates.

• Federal Court Filing regarding NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates – February 10, 2025 
  Twenty-two states file to block indirect cost rate cap. 

• Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates – February 7, 2025 
  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an indirect cost rate cap of 15% for new and existing grants. The new rate, which is proposed to go into effect Feb. 10, replaces previously negotiated rates with universities and research institutions.

February 7, 2025
Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an indirect cost rate cap of 15% for new and existing grants. The new rate, which is proposed to go into effect Feb. 10, replaces previously negotiated rates with universities and research institutions.

February 3, 2025
Executive Order Restraining Order
Here is a summary of the key terms:
1. Federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders.
2. This prohibition applies to all awards or obligations—not just those involving the Plaintiff States in the above-referenced case—and also applies to future assistance (not just current or existing awards or obligations).
3. Agencies may exercise their own authority to pause awards or obligations, provided agencies do so purely based on their own discretion—not as a result of the OMB Memo or the President’s Executive Orders—and provided the pause complies with all notice and procedural requirements in the award, agreement, or other instrument relating to such a pause.
4. Out of an abundance of caution, all federal agencies (even those not named as defendants in the case) should comply with the above-referenced terms.

February 2, 2025 – Message to the NSF principal investigator community
Access to the Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) has been restored and the system is available to accept payment requests as of 12:00 PM ET on February 2, 2025. See the NIH FAQs  for more information.