February 3, 2025

Dear NDSU Community,

I am pleased to provide a positive update about the status of the federal research funding freeze. 

Last Friday, a federal court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) directing federal agencies to discontinue the freeze.  As a result, I’m happy to report that payments from the federal government that were held in limbo last week will be processed and paid.

We’ve also received guidance that federal funding agencies are not going to be able to “pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB Memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders.”  In short, this means that the federal funding agencies cannot disallow payments because the expenditure is not in alignment with the Executive Orders.

While this is good news, please keep in mind that this change is based on a temporary restraining order, which is only in effect until the court decides whether to issue a preliminary injunction. A hearing for the preliminary injunction may take place in the coming weeks.  If granted, the TRO’s protections will remain in place throughout the litigation, which could last years.  If denied, funding agencies may restrict expenditures that don’t align with the executive orders.

Based on this information, here is our current guidance:

  1. NDSU will now, at least temporarily, revert back to business as normal for our federal grants.  Grants and Contract Accounting will not need to review and approve purchases and new hires.
  1. Because we do not know how long the TRO will last, NDSU is strongly encouraging timely submission of all eligible expenses.
  1. In order to be proactive, I am asking a working group to continue evaluating our current federal grant portfolio for areas of non-alignment with the executive orders.  In the event that a preliminary injunction is denied, I want NDSU to be informed and prepared so that we can minimize disruption to our research enterprise.

We truly appreciate your patience and cooperation. The resilience of our campus community shines through in the way we collaborate and support one another during challenges, and we will continue to keep you informed as the situation evolves.

If you have questions, please reach out to Chris Wilson at christopher.s.wilson@ndsu.edu.  For student concerns, please contact One Stop (https://www.ndsu.edu/onestop).

Thank you.  


David Cook, President

 

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