The U.S. White House issued an Executive Order on Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking, on August 7, 2025, outlining a comprehensive overhaul of how federal discretionary grants will be reviewed, awarded, and monitored. Some key points from the Executive Order (EO) include:
- Agency Oversight
- Political officials will review and approve funding opportunity announcements and related discretionary awards using their ‘independent judgement’
- Review Process
- Discretionary awards must align with agency priorities and national interest and demonstrably advance the President’s political priorities (almost all the federal research grants that UCLA receives are discretionary grants).
- Within 30 days, Agency officials must perform a retroactive review of existing awards and revise terms and conditions to allow for termination for convenience.
- Annual Reviews
- Agencies must annually assess projects for progress and alignment with priorities.
- Considerations for Discretionary Awards
- Preference should be given to institutions with lower indirect cost rates.
- Awards “should be given to a broad range of recipients rather than to a select group of repeat players.”
- Gold Standard Science
- “Applicants should commit to complying with administration policies, procedures, and guidance respecting Gold Standard Science.”
- “[A]wards should include clear benchmarks for measuring success and progress toward goals, and, as relevant . . . a commitment to achieving Gold Standard Science.”
- Agencies should prioritize an institution’s commitment to “scholarship over its historical reputation or perceived prestige.”
The EO directs Agency heads to take the necessary steps to implement the EO. We expect to see Agency specific implementations within the coming weeks.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued several notices over the last few weeks that may be of interest to UC investigators.
- On August 14, 2025, NIH issued NOT-OD-25-143 to announce that NIH notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) will only be posted in Grants.gov beginning fiscal year 2026. NOFOs will no longer be accessible from the NIH Guide or included in the weekly NIH Guide Table of Contents subscription emails.
- On August 7, 2025, NIH issued NOT-OD-25-142 to announce the no-cost extension (NCE) functionality within eRA Commons has been re-enabled. As a result, OCGA is once again able to approve first no-cost extensions directly in eRA Commons.
- On July 18, 2025, NIH issued NOT-OD-25-130 stating that support for existing foreign subawards that include human subjects research may be requested as an administrative supplement (Type 3). NIH plans to implement a new award structure for foreign subawards by September 30, 2025 (NOT-OD-25-104). See UCLA Guidance on Interim NIH Foreign Subaward Policy and NIH FAQs for more information.
- If you have an affected award, reach out to your assigned OCGA staff member. Learn more about NIH’s approach to foreign subawards in the July and August 2025 Research Administration Forum presentation slides.
- On July 17, 2025, NIH issued NOT-OD-25-132 regarding mitigating the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) being used to generate applications. NIH will continue efforts to detect AI-generated content and will also limit individuals to submitted six (6) applications per calendar year as a Principal Investigator or Multiple Principal Investigator. NIH issued FAQs to provide clarification on the “use of generative AI”. These NIH FAQs were updated after the August 14, 2025 UCLA Research Administration Forum so we encourage you to go to the website for the most up to date information. The updates provide additional clarification regarding the treatment of subaward Principal Investigators and awards transferred to a new institution (Type 7).
- On July 17, 2025, NIH issued NOT-OD-25-133 requiring all faculty and researchers identified as Senior/Key Personnel to take mandatory Other Support training. Recipients (entities) must implement trainings by October 1, 2025. The Office of Research Administration (ORA), along with UC, is currently reviewing the NIH training requirements to create and implement UCLA training.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on July 10, 2025 (Important No. 149), that Senior/Key Personnel (SKP) will be required to take Research Security Training (Job Aid) for all NSF proposals submitted on or after October 10, 2025. All SKP will be required to certify that the training has been completed within 12 months of proposal submission and, in addition, OCGA will be required to certify that all senior/key personnel, including subrecipients, have taken the requisite training. The Subrecipient Letter of Intent template will be updated to require the subrecipients confirmation that all subrecipient SKP are current on the required training.