Last Updated January 31, 2019
Guidance from UNC-Chapel Hill Administration
Dear Campus Community,
As you probably are aware, Congress is currently negotiating a deal to avoid a partial federal government shutdown. If an agreement is not reached today by midnight, certain portions of the government will temporarily go unfunded, when legislation expires to appropriate funding for fiscal 2019.
UNC-Chapel Hill has been planning for a partial shutdown scenario, and our campus is well prepared. Our Office of Federal Affairs and other front-line units are coordinating closely with the appropriate federal and state government agencies as we determine the possible impact on the University.
At this point, every indication is that a short-term partial shutdown would have a minimal impact on the U.S. higher education community. Currently, the University is operating on a normal basis. We will continue to use available funds to support work related to research contracts and grants. Students receiving federal financial aid will not experience any changes to their awards.
No one can predict how long this partial shutdown might last. A longer-term scenario could present challenges for some areas of University operations, and we will continue our analysis to determine what steps the campus may potentially need to take moving forward.
We are committed to keeping you informed about how the federal government shutdown affects you and our campus. The Office of Research Communications has created a website to help the campus community access information about current federal budget issues related to the partial shutdown. Please visit https://research.unc.edu/shutdown/ to find relevant information, including specific federal agency communications and links to individual agency shutdown plans.
In addition, our vice chancellors and other senior administrators will communicate directly with you if needed about the federal shutdown and operations in areas including research administration and human resources.
Sincerely,
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bob Blouin
Guidance from OSR
OSR has prepared the follow FAQ to help answer your research-related questions:
- During a shutdown, is my award/Project ID still open for business?
- Can my PI and other employees remain on the Project ID?
- Should I spend quickly on my award before the government runs out of funds?
- What do I do if I receive a stop work order notice?
- What does it mean if I receive agency stop work correspondence?
- What should we tell our consultants?
- Should the subcontractors continue work on the project or should we ask them to stop until the government starts back up?
- I have an employee on an IPA (Interagency Personnel Agreement) with a federal agency (i.e. NSF, NIEHS, EPA etc.). Can they continue to work during a shutdown?
- If I charge items on other Project IDs during this time period to continue the work on the project what will my justification be when I do a correcting Journal Entry to transfer the charge(s) to the grant once the government is back in full operation?
- Can I get approval for Foreign Travel?
- Can I get approval for a No-Cost Extension?
- Do I still need to perform closeout work currently due on my awards?
- I have a large Purchase Order open, is it okay to continue the work?
- We need to send a Termination Notice for a trainee on a training grant, NIH asked for this, but we cannot submit. What do we do?
- If we have documents that need to be returned to the sponsor via FedEx will anyone be there to receive it? Also, can we send emails to agencies?
- If I have a scheduled visit with a federal agency (including review panel, advisory group, workshop, site visit, etc.) during a shutdown, how should I proceed?
- Do I submit non-financial reports during a shutdown?
- Can I still submit proposals?
- What should I do if I am a Research Associate working on an NSF award?
- What should I do if I am a student who is working on an NSF Fellowship?
Dates in parentheses refer to the date the information was added to this website, not to the date of original publication.
Guidance from State of North Carolina Agencies
Guidance from Federal Agencies
During a “partial” government shutdown, only some federal government sponsors may be impacted. For example, DHHS (NIH), DOD, ED and DOE appropriations are signed into law, but NSF, NASA, and EPA appropriations (as of 12/21/2018) have not been finalized. ***Bill to reopen the federal government signed into effect on January 25, 2019.