The National Institute of Food and Agriculture has removed all RfAs for review.  PIs should not continue proposal development until further guidance is released. Any PIs with active NIFA grants should reach out to program officers and OSP for guidance.

ORD and OSP has no specific guidance for other USDA grants.

On January 23rd, the Department of Education issued a press release detailing the actions they have taken to eliminate DEI initiatives. While the press release primarily focuses on DoE employees and councils, it does mention identifying "for removal of over 200 web pages from the Department’s website that housed DEI resources and encouraged schools and institutions of higher education to promote or endorse harmful ideological programs".  PIs are encouraged to check to the pages connected to their grants to look for changes.

ORD and OSP have no specific guidance connected to currently existing grants or grants under review.   We are not aware of any formal communication pause and so PIs may reach out to program officers; be aware that they may not be able to respond quickly at present.

Researchers Preparing Proposals:

The Department of Education does continue to list multiple funding programs as open.  PIs are encouraged to check the websites of their intended programs frequently for updates, and to particularly pay attention to the "Page Last Reviewed" date at the bottom.  Programs whose page was reviewed after January 23rd are very likely to continue.

Regarding the SEED program: The SEED program page has not been updated with the opportunity published in the Federal Register on 1/17, and the expected webinars have not been scheduled.  The status of this program is uncertain.

ORD and OSP are not aware of any formal communication pause and so PIs may reach out to program officers; be aware that they may not be able to respond quickly at present.

IES funding programs remain listed online.  Information for two IES Virtual Office Hours for February 6th remains online, including links to join.  We encourage PIs considering any IES funding opportunity to join if possible. 

Numerous programs within the Department of Energy are expected to be affected by President Trump's executive orders; see particularly executive order "Unleashing American Energy".  In particular, all agencies are directed to immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  All programs must be reviewed for consistency with the aims of section 2 of this order, which means that we expect a pause in multiple energy and environmental programs.  Please see also the list of executive orders revoked in section 4 and the clarification memo.

According to a memo signed by acting secretary Ingrid Kolb, no funding or financial assistance (including loans, loan guarantees, grants, cost sharing agreements, funding opportunity announcements, and contracts) will be announced, approved, finalized, or provided until they are reviewed to ensure compliance with administration policy.  Therefore, researchers should not expect to be notified regarding their proposal status in the near future.  No end date is specified in the memo. 

All public facing communication is also paused, with exceptions required approval of the acting secretary.  Communications with program officers may be affected.

Currently funded PIs:

The Department of Energy has issued a policy flash which rescinds many previously-issued equity-focused policies.  OSP is also aware of a memorandum applicable to all DOE funded agreements and awards which:

• Suspends all DEI program and activities
• Suspends all Community Benefits Plans (CBP)
• Suspends all Justice40 requirements, conditions, and principles.

Recipients and subrecipients must cease any activities and stop incurring costs associated with DEI and CBP activities effective as of January 28th.  Grants Officers will be reaching out to discuss award modifications.

Researchers whose programs were funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act should expect their funding to be paused and reach out to OSP for more specific guidance (unless you have already been contacted by OSP).  Please be aware that communications with program officers may or may not be affected by the restrictions in the memo mentioned above.

Researchers with proposals under review:

Researchers may want to refer to the NOFO to see if their program was funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Please be aware that communications with program officers may be delayed or paused due to the public communications restrictions in the memo mentioned above.

The Office of Science has stated the following in a blog post:

The Office of Science is immediately ending the requirement for Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plans in any proposal submitted to the Office of Science. All open solicitations have been or will be amended to remove the PIER Plan requirement and associated review criterion. For proposals that have already been submitted to the Office of Science, no action on the part of the applicant is required, but applicants will have the option to resubmit a new application with the removal of the PIER plan. Reviewers will not be asked to read or comment on PIER Plans. Selection decisions will not take into consideration the content of PIER Plans or any reviewer comments on PIER Plans. If you have questions, please email questions@science.doe.gov. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Otherwise, proposal evaluation by the Office of Sciences is expected to proceed, possibly on a delayed time frame.

Researchers preparing proposals:

Researchers should check the NOFO for updates.  If the program was funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ORD would not recommend significant investment in proposal preparation.

PIs considering programs through the Office of Science should be aware of the update to PIER plan requirements issued in a blog post.  The Office of Science has already updated all of their programs to remove references to the PIER Plan which is no longer required for any proposals.  Some programs have had more substantial changes; for example, DE-FOA-0003464 was updated to a new name and to refocus the scope of the work.

As indicated above, no funding or financial assistance (including loans, loan guarantees, grants, cost sharing agreements, funding opportunity announcements, and contracts) shall be announced, approved, finalized, or provided until they are reviewed to ensure compliance with administration policy.  Thus researchers should not expect new programs to be announced in the near future. 

Please be aware that communications with program officers may be delayed or paused due to the public communications restrictions in the memo mentioned above.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has removed all previously posted NOFOs and cancelled associated webinars.  PIs should not continue proposal development until further guidance is released. Any PIs with active NIJ grants should reach out to program officers and OSP for guidance.

Other Department of Justice grant programs listed here are presumed to be continuing as the page was last updated January 29th.

Numerous programs within the EPA are expected to be affected by President Trump's executive orders; see particularly executive order "Unleashing American Energy".  In particular, all agencies are directed to immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  All programs must be reviewed for consistency with the aims of section 2 of this order, which means that we expect a pause in multiple energy and environmental programs.  Please see also the list of executive orders revoked in section 4 and the clarification memo.

The Washington Post reported on January 24th that most external communications by the EPA have been halted; some press releases have been put out since January 27th.

Currently funded PIs:

Researchers whose programs were funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act should expect their funding to be paused and reach out to OSP for more specific guidance (unless you have already been contacted by OSP).  Please be aware that communications with program officers may or may not be affected by the restrictions in the memo mentioned above.

Researchers with proposals under review:

ORD and OSP have no specific guidance.  Researchers may want to refer to the NOFO to see if their program was funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Please be aware that communications with program officers may be delayed or paused due to the public communications restrictions mentioned above.

Researchers preparing proposals:

Researchers should check the NOFO for updates.  If the program was funded through the Inflation Reducation Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ORD would not recommend significant investment in proposal preparation.

Please be aware that communications with program officers may be delayed or paused due to the public communications restrictions mentioned above.

Internationally-focused US Department of State grants are subject to review under Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid. The State Department has announced a 90 day pause for all foreign assistance, both on funding from the State Department and funding issued through USAID (US Agency for International Development).

ORD and OSP are aware that stop-work orders have been issued for some Department of State grants and affected PIs have been contacted. Other PIs are encouraged to reach out to program officers with specific questions for more information.

For PIs preparing proposals, please regularly check your program page.  ORD has noticed that some Public Diplomacy Small Grants Program webpages have been taken offline.  The SPARK program, which was funded by the State Department but operated by Institute of International Education (IIE), has also been taken offline.  We presume this indicates that the programs have been cancelled.

NASA has issued Amendment 109 to the 2024 ROSES, which states:

To comply with this order, SMD is in the process of amending open Program Elements in ROSES-2024 to end the Inclusion Plan Pilot Study, remove requirements for Inclusion Plans and the evaluation factors associated with them, and adjust the content of some other Program Elements to remove references to NASA’s DEIA programs. Program elements that have already received proposals will not be amended, but if they required Inclusion Plans, those plans will not be reviewed and will not impact the selection of proposals.

A table of program elements to be amended is included in the amendment.

Currently funded PIs:

If your program element is within the table, please reach out to the relevant program officer.  Amendment 109 has the following information:

Questions regarding any particular program element may be directed to the point of contact for that given in the summary table of key information at the end of the program element and at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/program-officers-list/.

Researchers with proposals under review:

As noted in the amendment, if your proposal included an Inclusion Plan it will not be reviewed and any evaluation criteria associated with them will be removed.  Otherwise, proposal evaluation is expected to proceed, possibly on a delayed time frame.

Researchers preparing proposals:

Please also follow the NASA ROSES blog here, which indicates updates to program elements, including new due dates and revisions to program element descriptions.  If your program element is NOT mentioned in the amendment, we expect minimal changes, although please check the blog and program element page regularly for updated due dates.

If your program element IS mentioned in the amendment, please check the blog and program element page regularly for updates.  These updates will include, at a minimum, the removal of the Inclusion Plan.  For example, information about updates to F.5 FINESST SMD is here on the ROSES blog. 

NASA is encouraging questions about any program element to be directored to the appropriate point of contact at the end of the program element and at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/program-officers-list/.

If you are applying to a program not included in ROSES, the amendment states the separate notices will be published as they become available. 

ORD and OSP has no specific guidance regarding the NEA. The NEA Equity Action Plan has been taken offline.

ORD and OSP has no specific guidance regarding the NEH. The NEH Equity Action Plan has been taken offline.

The NEH blog remains active and announced funding opportunities as recently as January 27th: A New US-UK Collaboration: Exploring the Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of AI.  The most recent NEH press release was to announce a new funding opportunity on January 22nd. 

A memo from Acting Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink implements a public communications pause until February 1st, as reported by Science.  This includes all divisions of HHS, including NIH, HRSA, and CDC. Further guidance from acting NIH director Matthew Memoli reported by Science narrowed the scope of the memo, and also indicated that study sections are likely to resume in early February.  Importantly, program officers who oversee extramural grants can talk to grantees about work funded prior to January 20th.

Currently:

• Program officers may be difficult to contact and can only discuss work funded prior to January 20th.
• Study sections for the final week of January have been cancelled.
• Training activities (e.g., the R15 informational webinar) have been cancelled.

Currently funded PIs:

NIH has yet to offer specific guidance to current PIs.  However, the follow-up memo reported by Science indicates the PIs should be able to communicate with program officers provided that their work was funded prior to January 20th.

Researchers with proposals under review:

Researchers should expect that review may be delayed due to the cancellation of study sections.  Program officers are unlikely to be able to communicate with PIs at this time due to the communications pause.

Researchers preparing proposals:

Researchers should consult the PAR or RFA for their programs regularly and be alert for updates, and should keep these executive orders in mind when writing their proposals. Please be aware that PARs and RFAs are occasionally expired prior to their last scheduled application due date.

Researchers may want to subscribe to NIH updates; ORD particularly recommends the weekly table of contents emails.  This will indicate any policy changes. 

A memo from Acting Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink implements a public communications pause until February 1st, as reported by Science.  This includes all divisions of HHS, including NIH, HRSA, and CDC.

Although further guidance from NIH acting director Matthew Memoli narrowed the scope of the memo (as reported by Science), it is unclear whether this applies to HRSA. 

Currently:

• Program officers may be difficult to contact and, in the best case scenario, can only discuss work funded prior to January 20th (as with NIH).
• Evaluation of currently submitted proposals is suspended.
• Webinars appear to suspended- note that they were removed from the BHWET-Paraprofessionals funding notice here on January 24th.

Currently funded PIs:

To the best of our knowledge, none of these agencies has yet to offer specific guidance to current PIs.  PIs should be aware that due to the communications pause they may not be able to correspond with program officers.

Researchers with proposals under review:

Researchers should expect that review may be delayed, and should be aware that program officers are unlikely to be able to communicate with PIs at this time due to the communications pause.

Researchers preparing proposals:

Please be aware that many programs depend on the future appropriations of funds, particularly in HRSA. As a particular example, the Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) program indicates in the NOFO that applications will be reviewed only if Congress appropriates funding for the program.  PIs should review their program NOFO for information about the availability of funds for the programs and should consider the priorities of the administration and Congress in evaluating the likelihood for funds to be appropriated.

Additionally, researchers should be alert for updates for their intended programs, including their potential cancellation.  PIs should also be aware that program officers may not be answer questions currently due to the communication pause.

Researchers should keep these executive orders in mind when writing their proposals.  

All researchers can submit questions to NSF via their webform.  Questions are unlikely to receive personalized responses but will be used to form an FAQ related to implementation of the executive orders.

Currently funded PIs:

The National Science Foundation is reporting on their implementation of the executive orders here. The NSF has also issued the following instruction to PIs with active grants:

All NSF grantees must comply with these executive orders, and any other relevant executive orders issued, by ceasing all non-compliant grant and award activities. Executive orders are posted at whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions. In particular, this may include, but is not limited to conferences, trainings, workshops, considerations for staffing and participant selection, and any other grant activity that uses or promotes the use of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) principles and frameworks or violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

PIs are encouraged to communicate with OSP with questions.

Researchers with proposals under review:

NSF has cancelled panel reviews for the remainder of the week according to Insider Higher Ed.  Researchers with proposals currently under review should expect a delay before notification of funding decisions.  It is unclear how the executive orders will affect evaluation of proposal evaluation.  Given the instructions to PIs above, it may be prudent to consider whether any proposed activities are non-compliant with the executive orders and, if so, whether they can be excised from the rest of the grant activities. 

To the best of our knowledge, program officers are not restricted from public communications and so researchers may send questions to them, but please be aware that they may not be able to answer at this time.

Researchers developing proposals:

Please be aware that some existing NSF programs have shifted their focus (e.g., NSF GRANTED). Researchers are encouraged to regularly consult their program's funding solicitation and related documents.  We encourage researchers to attend office hours and similar events if/when they are offered.  Please take care in using guidance (including office hours recording) prepared prior to the issuance of these executive orders.

Researchers should also consider these executive orders when preparing proposals, particularly in regards to their Broader Impacts section.  The NSF's description of Broader Impacts is here.