Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations

Related Notices

• 11.18.2025 Reminder of Compliance Requirements for NIH Extramural Recipients Related to Renegotiated Aims, Objectives, Titles, and Abstracts 

Previous Notices

• 9.25.2025 Federal Government Shutdown – Contingency Plan 
• 11.07.2025 Reminder: Information for the NIH Extramural Community During the Lapse of Federal Government Funding 
• 11.21.2025 NIH Operates Under a Continuing Resolution 

Current Notice

Application Deadlines

• All late submissions for deadlines Oct 1–Dec 5, 2025, will be accepted through Dec 8 at 5:00 PM (local time). No permission requests or cover letters are required.
• OSR will support proposal resubmission requests for applications delayed due to system errors or troubleshooting during the shutdown.

Post-Submission Materials

• January 2026 Council: Post-submission materials allowed as described in NOT-OD-19-083, up to one week before the peer review meeting.
• May 2026 Council: NIH will accept one page of preliminary data (per component for multi-component), only if the NOFO allowed preliminary data. Materials must be submitted 30 days before the study section meeting.

RPPRs Submitted During Shutdown

• RPPRs due Oct 1–Nov 13 do not need to be resubmitted unless specifically requested by the Institute/Center.

Peer Review Modifications

NIH cancelled over 370 review meetings, affecting more than 24,000 applications. To address the backlog:

• Only 30–35% of applications will be discussed (reduced from ~50%).
• Applications in the middle scoring range will be labeled “competitive but not discussed.”
• Summary statements will be streamlined, using brief consensus summaries and bullet points, plus assigned reviewers’ critiques.
• These temporary modifications apply to January and May 2026 Councils due to overlapping workload.

ESI & K99 Updates

• ESI status will be automatically adjusted for applicants impacted by shutdown delays.
• K99/R00 timeline guidance will be issued separately.

Loan Repayment Program

• New deadline: December 4, 2025 (NOT-OD-26-010).

Payments & Financial Operations

• PMS payments are operating normally; institutions should contact PMS if a drawdown was placed on hold during the shutdown.
• NIH issued separate guidance on operations under a continuing resolution: NOT-OD-26-011.

See NIH Notice NOT-OD-26-012 for inquiries.