In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Management and Budget issued memorandums, notably M-20-11 and M-20-17, to provide federal agencies greater flexibility in the administration of federal funding.

Each federal funding agency can implement this guidance as they see fit and investigators are encouraged to check each agency’s specific policies for instruction applicable to their proposals and awards.  In general, agency policy updates might include those such as:

• Flexibility in the approval of No Cost Extension requests for awards active March 31, 2020 and which would expire prior to or by December 31, 2020.
• Flexibility with deadlines for financial, performance, and other reporting. Please note that ORSP encourages timely submission, when possible, to avoid delays in receipt of incremental funding.
• Allowability of salaries and other project activities.
• Allowability of certain costs not generally chargeable to awards but which are related to the public health crisis.
• Flexibility with application deadlines.
• Extension of closeout requirements.

The Council for Governmental Review (COGR) compiled a comprehensive list of federal agencies’ responses to COVID-19.  Please refer to that list for up-to-date policy announcements and implementation of COVID-19 flexibility at each agency.

You are encouraged to contact ORSP at sponsored-programs@neomed.edu (pre-award and non-financial post-award) or grantsaccounting@neomed.edu (financial post-award) to discuss the application of agency policy to a specific proposal or award.