Research and Sponsored Programs

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

Federal Government Shutdown

Page Updated: October 15, 2025

Due to a lapse in appropriations, the Federal government has shut down non-essential operations as of October 1st, 2025 at 12:01 am.

In general, there may be impacts to application submission, award processing, no-cost extensions, and other tasks that require federal sponsor interaction. Our commitment to help campus navigate sponsored programs administration is unchanged.

Should you receive any shutdown-related correspondence from the sponsor(e.g., stop work order), please immediately provide the information to your supervisor or Principal Investigator and to Research and Sponsored Programs.

Based on current existing federal agency contingency plans, we anticipate the following. The guidance below will be updated as we learn more.

• Active Awards: In most cases, existing federally-funded projects may continue until they run out of already obligated funding. It is possible that agencies may issue Stop Work Orders for contracts or other transaction agreements. If a Stop Work Order is issued, work must cease and no expenses can be incurred. Please immediately forward such correspondence to rspinfo@rsp.wisc.edu and to your supervisor or principal investigator.
• Proposal Submissions: Proposal systems are likely to be online during a shutdown. While proposals may be accepted in the systems, agency staff will not be available to process them. Proposals submitted during a shutdown will not be processed until normal agency operations resume. After normal operations resume, agencies may issue extensions of deadline dates. It is not clear if Help Desk functions for agency systems will be available during a shutdown. Peer reviews are not expected to occur. This may impact faculty who are reviewers or may result in delays for those whose proposals are awaiting review.
• Pending New Awards & Other Actions: No new grants, continuing increments of funding, cooperative agreements, contracts, other agreements, or supplements will be awarded during a shutdown. Any pending actions requiring prior approval (no-cost extensions, revised budgets, etc.) will not be acted upon during a shutdown, as federal agency personnel will not be available to process them.
• Reimbursements:While reimbursement from federal sponsors may be delayed, many payment management systems remain open and active. RSP will continue submitting invoices/draws during the shutdown as we can.
• Outgoing Subawards:Work may proceed unless a stop work order, termination, or other directive is issued by the sponsor.
• Incoming Subawards:UW-Madison should follow all guidance and directives from the Pass-Through Entity, which receives Notices of Award (NOAs) from the prime sponsor.
• Technical and Financial Reports: If an agency's electronic reporting system is available (which is expected to be the case), then all reports must be submitted by their original deadline. If a report is submitted by email, it should be filed on time. In either case, report review and/or acceptance by the agency will not occur until normal operations resume.

Government Shutdown Guidance

If you have access to an agency contingency plan or other information that is not listed below, please send it to rspinfo@rsp.wisc.edu.

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