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2025 Federal Government Shutdown Update and Resources for Sponsored Programs

The U.S. government went into a shutdown on October 1, 2025. To end the shutdown, Congress will need to pass new legislation to fund the government. We continue to monitor the situation, and the guidance below will be updated as needed.

Direction from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) required agencies to outline actions that will be taken in a short-term (one-five day) shutdown and to describe adjustments if the lapse extends beyond five days. Those plans are linked below by agency (information as of October 1, 2025).

U.S. Department of Commerce - Plan for Orderly Shutdown Due to Lapse of Congressional Appropriations

U.S. Department of Education - Contingency Plan for Lapse in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Appropriations

U.S. Department of Energy - Lapse Plan Summary Overview

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Contingency Staffing Plan for Operations in the Absence of Enacted Annual Appropriations

U.S. Department of Interior

U.S. Department of State - Updated Guidance on Operations During a Lapse in Appropriations

U.S. Department of War (formerly DOD) - Contingency Plan Guidance for Continuation of Operations in the Absence of Appropriations

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

National Endowment for the Humanities - Agency Operations in the Absence of Appropriations

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Additional Resources

UNCW Contact Information

Mandated Research Security Training

New Federal Requirement for Sponsored Programs - Mandated Research Security Training

Federal research funding agencies continue to implement research security requirements in accordance with federal regulations (CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and NSPM-33). This includes a new research security training requirement for all Senior/Key Personnel listed on applications to be completed within 12 months prior to proposal submission.

Additional agencies are expected to implement the training requirement in the coming months.

SPARC and RIO encourage all covered individuals to take advantage of the 1-hour training module available through the SECURE Center, which meets the government-wide requirement. Provide a copy of the downloadable completion certificate to your Sponsored Programs Officer to associate with the proposal’s OSPREY file. Lack of training certification will prevent application submission.

Contact SPARC or the Research Integrity Office with questions or for assistance.

SPARC Virtual Office Hours

Join us for Virtual Office Hours - We're here to answer your questions!

Every Tuesday and Thursday from 1-2 p.m. at least one SPARC staff member will be available via Zoom to provide faculty and staff the opportunity to ask questions, discuss current events, and consider sponsored project opportunities. Click the link below to join.

SPARC Virtual Office Hours T, Th from 1-2 p.m.

  • Meeting ID: 853 6413 2964
  • Passcode: 109119

PUI Status

With UNCW's success in graduating more than 20 Ph.D. students in the last two years in areas supported by the National Science Foundation, the institution is no longer considered a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) by NSF.

WHY IT MATTERS

With this change, effectively immediately, UNCW is no longer eligible to apply for funding from the "Research in Undergraduate Institutions" (RUI) program. Further, the standard 30% cost-share for non-PUI eligible institutions on awards from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation program will be waived by NSF for five-years starting in FY2023, due to the CHIPS and Science act of 2022.

UNCW currently remains eligible for the NIH Academic Research Enhancement Awards ("AREA") for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15) opportunities, as this change does not impact these opportunities.

NEXT STEPS

If you are currently writing an NSF proposal to submit using the RUI mechanism, NSF recommends submitting directly to the most relevant research program. If you are unsure about the best program, NSF further recommends conducting a keyword search in the NSF awards database to identify previous funding for similar research efforts. The SPARC pre-award team is available to assist (proposals@uncw.edu ).