UPDATE, 9/22/2023 — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a final update to the below notice on September 15th, 2023.
Updates to Section 15.2 in NIH’s terms and conditions will now be effective January 1st, 2024. After this date, Subawards GCOs in ORSPA will be requiring at least annual technical reports from foreign subrecipients in subagreements and including additional language to highlight the requirement.
The updated notice included additional clarifications summarized below:
- NIH will not support an agreement that does not meet minimum requirements of this section
- NIH has the right to request copies of the written agreement and supporting documentation as needed for audit purposes
- NIH expects recipients to request potential subrecipients submit language in their letters of support, at proposal time, indicating their awareness of the requirements and willingness to abide by all requirements if the award is issued
- If a subrecipient cannot accept the requirements outlined in this section, then the subagreement cannot be issued.
An updated example of language that subrecipients could include in letters of support to meet this requirement is included below:
“[entity name] acknowledges and is aware of the revised language included in NIH’s Section 15.2 Administrative and Other Requirements effective January 1st, 2024. Should an award be issued, [entity name] is willing to abide by all requirements included in this section.”
On May 19th, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that they would be updating their subaward/consortium policy included in agreements.
Effective October 1st, 2023, NIH is updating Section 15.2 in their terms and conditions to include additional requirements for subrecipients at proposal and award time. This is in response of updated 2 CFR 200.332(a)(5) which requires that subrecipients allow pass-through entities and auditors access to subrecipient records and financial statements as needed.
After this date, Subawards GCOs in ORSPA will be requiring at least quarterly technical reports from foreign subrecipients in subagreements and including additional language to highlight the requirement.
Research administrators are advised to mention in subaward packages or subaward document requests at proposal time that letters of support should include language indicating the subrecipient’s awareness to the updated requirements in NIH’s Section 15.2. This requirement only applies to subrecipients and not vendors/consultants. An example of language that subrecipients could include in letters of support to address this is included below:
“[entity name] acknowledges the revised language included in NIH’s Section 15.2 Administrative and Other Requirements effective October 1st, 2023.”
By Research Operations