As the shutdown begins its fourth week, we want to let you know the impact on the University of Minnesota. Our thanks to colleagues across the University for keeping a close eye on the situation.
As the shutdown begins its fourth week, we want to let you know the impact on the University of Minnesota. Our thanks to colleagues across the University for keeping a close eye on the situation.
- The shutdown affects close to 1,300 awards that University of Minnesota researchers rely on for competitively-awarded funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation, USDA, NASA, US Agency for international Development, US Department of Transportation, US Department of Homeland Security, National Park Service, and Environmental Protection Agency.
- U of M researchers have accrued approximately $10 million in expenses that have so far gone unreimbursed.
- Every day the shutdown continues, that tally grows by more than half a million dollars. That's money the University has already spent to keep federal projects running, and it will not be reimbursed by the federal government until the shutdown ends.
- While U of M research that is funded by closed federal agencies is continuing, the shutdown will likely have an increasing impact on that research, because in addition to a lack of reimbursement for expenses on these affected agencies’ projects, shut-down sponsors are not able to approve significant changes to projects, and affected agencies cannot make awards based on new or already submitted proposals.
- Two Minnesota-based US Department of Agriculture facilities on the St. Paul campus are shuttered: the Cereal Disease Lab and the North Central Research Center. U of M employees who work at the North Central Research Center have relocated to other facilities within the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences. The absence of their USDA colleagues represents a significant disruption for collaborating researchers at the University.
- While the Department of Education is funded and is open, we are aware of a small number of U of M students having difficulty verifying income with the shutdown IRS for the purpose of determining financial aid. (If you are aware of a student needing assistance, please have them contact One Stop Student Services.)
We are in communication with our congressional delegation about the impact of the shutdown on the University of Minnesota, and we will keep you informed as the situation continues to unfold.