To the Case Western Reserve University community,
We remain profoundly concerned about the potential consequences of changes to research policies taking place across the country. These changes will have a significant negative impact on all American research universities, including us. Please know that we continue to advocate on behalf of critical research that is invaluable to advancing science and keeping the United States at the forefront of innovation.
I write today with updates on federal research funding. On Friday, April 18, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that, effective immediately, it is terminating all grants that do not align with updated agency priorities. NSF notes it will continue to review all projects using intellectual merit and broader impact criteria, explaining that research on broadening participation “must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere.”
I encourage you to visit NSF’s Frequently Asked Questions page on these changes. It is clear that NSF will terminate awards not aligned with its priorities. Additionally, NSF provides further guidance on the types of research that it will continue to fund within the broader impact criteria. Researchers may recruit or study individuals based on protected characteristics when doing so is intrinsic to the research question or aimed to fill an important gap in knowledge. Research projects that give a preference to some groups at the expense of others, directly or indirectly exclude individuals or groups, or have impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics will not be seen as aligned to NSF priorities. At this time, NSF hasn’t terminated any of the university’s grants. If and when this changes, the Office of Research and Technology Management (ORTM) will be notified, and will in turn notify the principal investigator and respective dean, along with the Provost’s Office. Currently, it is unclear if there is an appeal process for NSF-terminated grants.
Additionally, on April 11, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a notification that facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, sometimes called indirect cost rate or IDC, will be capped at 15% for DOE grants. The F&A portion of grants cover necessary costs of doing research including personnel, research facilities, regulatory compliance, utilities, safety requirements and myriad other support. We estimate that Case Western Reserve University faces an incremental potential loss of $4 million from this new policy action.
The American Association of Research Universities (AAU)—of which Case Western Reserve University is a member—along with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the American Council on Education (ACE) filed a lawsuit on April 14 challenging the Department of Energy’s imposition of the cap. On April 16, the court granted the temporary restraining order (TRO), which means the cap is not enacted at this time. While this lawsuit and ruling is a welcome relief, it is, at the moment, only temporary.
For principal investigators, please continue conducting research as normal. You are able to continue to submit grants with the current CWRU F&A rate. If you are contacted by your agency or program officer to make a change on grant spending, please quickly provide this information to Joan Schenkel, associate vice president for research administration, at researchquestions@case.edu.
We will continue to keep you posted on any new developments as we learn of them, and the Office of Research and Technology Management webpage can serve as a resource to help our researchers better understand the changing environment.
Sincerely,
Eric W. Kaler
President
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106