Feb 13, 2025
Dear faculty colleagues,
UC System Provost Katherine Newman shared the update below regarding federal guidelines for indirect cost recovery. She also recommends that we check regularly for updates at the UC Office of the President Federal Updates webpage.
As a reminder, if you are preparing an NIH grant at this time, you should consult with the Office of Research for guidance.
Sincerely,
Hal Stern
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Distinguished Professor, Department of Statistics
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Dear colleagues,
As you may have already read, the Federal Court in Massachusetts acted quickly to issue a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit that California joined as one of 22 states seeking to stop the National Institutes of Health from reducing their Facilities and Administration (also known as Indirect Cost (IDC)) rates to 15%. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) along with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, and Greater New York Hospital Association took similar steps today and that restraining order was approved by the Massachusetts court as well.
To add to the chorus of institutions in opposition to the NIH reduction in IDC rates, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the American Council on Education (ACE), and the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (APLU) have now filed their complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order. The University of California is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with 12 other institutions (Brandeis, Brown, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Cornell, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Penn, Rochester, and Tufts).
It is heartening to see this degree of unity in the higher education sector, across so many different states. We know there is a longer road to travel before this issue is resolved, but we are working overtime on it. And, as you probably also realize, this is not the only issue the University faces. The recent announcement that contracts and grants from the Institute for Education Sciences have been cancelled represents another area of concern and we are tracking/responding there as well.
So as not to take up additional space in your inbox, I recommend that you consult the site developed by our Federal Relations colleagues for weekly updates on issues in Washington, DC. UC Federal Updates website: https://www.
Going forward, that will be the best place to find updates.
Thank you, once again, for all that you do for UC. It has never been more important.
Cordially,
Katherine S. Newman
UC System Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy