The partial federal government shutdown has created a wide variety of challenges for most of us at CIRES. To our NOAA-based people: I sincerely appreciate all you’ve done to remain productive; keep in touch with your colleagues and supervisors as you work from home, the library, or elsewhere; deal with childcare challenges; and struggle to understand what is and is not allowed. To many of you on CU Boulder campus: Thank you for providing conference room or desk/lab space for colleagues displaced from the federal building.
These are very difficult times, and I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I know you all, like me, feel deeply for our federal colleagues, who have already missed a paycheck. My team is working to address a number of questions and concerns that have come up in recent weeks. I hope to be able to schedule an in-person Town Hall in the next few days, or at least to publish a set of FAQs that may provide some clarity.
On the fiscal side, CU’s Office of Contracts and Grants has chosen NOT to suspend essential work on our federally funded sponsored projects unless specifically instructed to do so through a stop-work order. What this means for us is that we can continue working on our projects as long as we have available funding and an active period of performance. Our finance team is working to provide PIs with financial reports indicating what funds are available for which projects, and will be in contact with updates for projects that are nearing the end of their funding. For more information on how the shutdown impacts research funding and related activities, please refer to the Research and Innovation Office’s web page (updated 1/3/19).
I’ll be back in touch soon and will continue to provide more information as it becomes available.
Sincerely,
Waleed Abdalati
CIRES Director
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