Dear Colleagues:
On March 1, the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act of 2011 took effect resulting in $1.2 trillion in federal government budget cuts over the next ten years. For the remainder of federal fiscal year (FFY) 2013, approximately $85 billion will be cut from across all federal agencies. In addition, the federal government is currently operating under a continuing resolution that will expire on March 27, 2013. Hopefully, Congress and the President will agree upon a FFY 2013 budget or extend the continuing resolution until the end of the FFY (September 30) before the current continuing resolution expires.
Federal agencies have initiated steps to implement sequestration cuts; however, their actions have not been uniform. As an example of these varied approaches, UCI recently received several federal grants that were reduced by 15% to 50% of the funds initially obligated for FFY 2013. Therefore, it is important for principal investigators, departments, schools and research units to pay careful attention to how federal agencies are responding to sequestration. It is also important to closely monitor and manage research programs by prudently balancing technical progress and financial commitments/expenditures. If a principal investigator receives a new/renewal or continuing grant that awards funds at reduced levels, and he or she believes that the reduction will severely impact their ability to achieve technical progress, please bring the matter to the attention of your Contract and Grant Officer in Sponsored Projects Administration.
With sequestration impacting federal budgets across the board, it is possible that federal agency service delays may occur. Please take this into account when planning research program changes that need to be communicated to federal agencies or when such changes require federal agency prior approval.
To help keep the campus updated on sequestration, several links to informative websites have been added to the Sponsored Projects Administration homepage, which is available at http://www.research.uci.edu/ora/sp/.
John C. Hemminger
Vice Chancellor for Research