Department of Energy (DOE) F&A Announcement and Additional Guidance for BU Faculty and Staff

Last Friday evening, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new policy action cutting the F&A rate of federal research grants to 15% for colleges and universities. Today, the University received additional guidance identifying the prime awards impacted by this policy change and requesting the University to confirm acceptance of the 15% F&A rate by May 14, 2025, to avoid termination of those awards. The notice also clarified the updated F&A rate of 15% for current and new awards will be effective on May 14, 2025.

On Monday, April 14th the Association of American Universities (AAU), American Council on Education, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and nine universities filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking to block the DOE rate cut. The University submitted a strongly worded written statement in federal court supporting the lawsuit. Additional information can be found here.

On Wednesday, April 16th the MA District Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), similar to what was issued in the litigation concerning the NIH F&A cap, preventing the DOE from unilaterally implementing the F&A rate cut. Therefore, we will not be making any changes to the University’s current DOE awards. The University will continue to draw/invoice at our full negotiated F&A rate until further notice.

During this time, please continue work as normal:

  • For proposals, include the University’s full negotiated F&A rate with this caveat included in the budget justification: “Boston University requests our current federally negotiated rate, but we will accept the rate approved at the time of award.”
  • For current awards, there will be no change in the F&A rate until further guidance is received.
  • The University will not be making any changes to outgoing subawards during this time.
  • For incoming subawards, if you receive a modification from the Prime awardee reducing the F&A rate to 15%, please notify your Pre-Award Officer so that we may inquire further from the Prime awardee before acceptance.
  • For new awards, we will monitor budgets before acceptance if the F&A rate has been reduced to 15%.

If you have any additional questions, please reach out to ospera@bu.edu.

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