Agreement with the Federal Government

Dear Members of the Columbia Research Community,

As you saw from Acting President Shipman’s announcement, Columbia has reached an agreement with the federal government. This agreement includes several important developments for the future of Columbia’s federally funded research. We would like to highlight three provisions that are critical to our continued efforts to carry out federally funded research and obtain new funding for new projects:

First, the agreement provides that the federal government will treat Columbia as eligible for further grants, contracts, and awards in the ordinary course, without disfavored treatment.

Second, the agreement provides that, in the ordinary course and as soon as reasonably practicable, the federal government will timely renew relevant non-competitive grants, consistent with past practice.

Third, most awards terminated by NIH and HHS in March will be reinstated. 

We are awaiting details on how the federal government will operationalize reinstatement of awards and the above-referenced renewals. In the meantime:

• Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) will notify relevant principal investigators of any reinstated awards, as early as possible.
• Principal investigators should notify SPA of any communications they receive directly from program officials regarding reinstated awards.

As we move through this transition, we and our teams will continue to provide as much support and information as we can. Sponsored Projects Administration and members of the Finance team will provide you with detailed operational guidance, and we will continue to communicate through our usual mechanisms, including updated FAQs, the Federal Updates 2025 website, and a webinar for our research community in the near future.

The past several months have required this community to come together to address complex strategic, operational and financial issues. We are both impressed by and grateful for the resilience and creativity of our research community. In addition to scientific vision, intellectual drive, and a desire to contribute to our society, we know these traits will continue to be strengths of research at Columbia as we move forward.

Thank you for your continued commitment to Columbia research.

Sincerely,

Angela V. Olinto
Provost, Professor of Astronomy and of Physics

Anne R. Sullivan
Executive Vice President for Finance

Jeannette M. Wing
Executive Vice President for Research, Professor of Computer Science