Due to the lapse in appropriated federal funds as of January 31, 2026, please be advised that NIH staff may not be available to provide normal oversight and administrative support services. See the full announcement at NOT-OD-26-036.
PAYMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DRAWDOWN REQUESTS
For awards received prior to the lapse in funding, you may be able to continue drawing funds from prior awards during an appropriations lapse. HHS’s Payment Management System will remain operational to continue processing those drawdown requests. If you received your notice of grant award with restrictive terms and conditions, or if your drawdown request triggers one of the Payment Management System edit checks and/or the drawdown limit controls, you may not be able to drawdown funds.
CONTACT WITH NIH STAFF
eRA Systems: eRA systems will be operational, but with limited support. Furthermore, use is restricted to excepted activities. eRA will provide limited end-user support for excepted/approved staff and excepted programs. The eRA service desk will not be operational. If applicants encounter system issues when applying, they should submit an eRA service desk ticket to document the issue. NIH will take this into consideration for accepting late applications when operations resume.
E-mail, Phone, Fax, and Postal Mail Contacts: For the duration of the funding lapse, NIH extramural employees will be prohibited from working (remotely or in the office). Consequently, there will be no access to voice mail, e-mail, fax, or postal mail during this period. Mail requiring someone to sign/accept may not be received. All other postal mail, fax, and voice mail communications will not be acted upon until after operations resume. It is recommended that you delay sending such communications until operations resume.
Central E-mail Boxes for Policy and Compliance: For the duration of the funding lapse, all central e-mail boxes and web ticketing systems for questions related to NIH grants policy and compliance will not be operational.
Human Safety: In the event of an emergency involving human participant safety in NIH funded research, please contact Dr. Jon Lorsch (jon.lorsch@nih.gov).
SUBMISSION OF GRANT APPLICATIONS
For the duration of the funding lapse, applicants should continue to submit applications in accordance with the due dates outlined in the Notices of Funding Opportunities. Applications will be accepted and reviewed once operations resume. For any applications submitted immediately prior to or during the funding lapse, here is what will happen:
- For electronic submissions through Grants.gov: Grants.gov will be open and can accept electronic applications. However, applications will not be processed by NIH until operations resume.
- For electronic submission of multi-project applications through NIH’s ASSIST system: The ASSIST system will remain available and can accept applications. However, applications will not be processed by NIH until operations resume.
Please see the full notice for complete details and check the NIH website at www.grants.nih.gov and www.HHS.gov for updates.
Full Notice
National Institutes of Health
NOT-OD-26-036
February 2, 2026
