Federal Grant Funding Reinstated at UCLA Following Judicial Ruling
Following a court order, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reinstated previously suspended grants to UCLA. Email notifications have been sent to impacted UCLA Principal Investigators (PIs) confirming reinstatement of grants. The OCGA Outgoing Subawards Team will be sending emails to PIs this afternoon requesting confirmation that subawards on previously suspended grants should be reinstated.
National Institutes of Health Updates and Reminders
On September 25, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued NOT-OD-25-163 to announce that recipients may charge costs for rehoming/retirement of experimental animals.
As reminder, beginning October 1, 2025, NIH will no longer post Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. Utilize NIH’s new tool to Explore NIH Grant Opportunities to identify NOFOs posted in Grants.gov. Refer to Search Tips for NIH Opportunities for tips on using the new Explore NIH Grant Opportunities tool and Grants.gov. The NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts will continue to be the source for NIH policy and informational notices.
NIH encourages researchers to view the NIH Highlighted Topics tool to identify scientific areas of particular interest to the NIH when considering topics for investigator-initiated grant applications. NIH recently added more topics and plans to continue adding more.
The NIH deadline of Monday, October 6, 2025, is expected to see a high volume of proposal submissions. In light of this and the recent implementation of the NIH Validation feature in S2S Grants, we strongly encourage you to plan ahead and submit proposals as soon as possible so that there is sufficient time to resolve any technical issues that may arise during submission.
Potential Government Shutdown
As we have done for previous potential government shutdowns, OCGA will post information to our webpage on related processes and expectations for federal grant and contract issues during a shutdown. In the meantime, please submit your planned no-cost extension requests as soon as possible, before the potential government shutdown on October 1, 2025. Stay tuned for further information.
New EPASS Training Videos
An Extramural Proposal Approval and Submission Summary (EPASS) must be submitted for proposals to extramural funding agencies that require OCGA review and approval. EPASSes are prepared and routed for Principal Investigator and Chair and/or Dean approval, then to OCGA for review and approval in the Electronic EPASS System. OCGA has created the following training videos to provide instruction and guidance on using EPASS.
- Navigating the Preparer Dashboard(UCLA Box Login Required)
- Getting Started with a New EPASS (UCLA Box Login Required)
- Preparing an EPASS for a Preliminary Proposal (UCLA Box Login Required)
- Preparing an EPASS for a Standard Proposal (UCLA Box Login Required)
UCLA Box Login is required to access the videos. Please contact Kassie Obelleiro, Senior Training and Skill Development Officer, if you have difficulty accessing the videos.