Depending on the terms of the initial award, some multi-year projects are negotiated each year, and others are fully established up front. Typically, notifications of continuation funding will be sent by the funding agency to the pre-award team, who will review the agreement for any changes and alert the PI to any unexpected terms in the next award year (such as budget reductions by the agency). Pre-award will then hand off the continuation award to the post-award team for setup of the next project year.
The post-award team will set up the next project year as follows, based on the terms of the award agreement:
- A new project number will be established if the agreement prohibits automatic carryover, requires separate final financial reports to close out the current period, or when a new grant number is issued by the agency for each period.
- Project numbers will remain the same if the agreement allows automatic carryover, does not require final financial reports for closing, and the agency-assigned grant number issued in the new period has not changed.
After a continuation has been processed, the post-award liaison will send a revised notice of award to the PI, which is your cue to begin spending on the new project number!
It is also possible to extend the end date of an existing project number when the agency agrees to make the funds available to the project past the original end date of the award. This is referred to as a "No-Cost Extension" (NCE), because the extension of the grant occurs at no additional cost to the funding agency. Typically, an NCE request must be submitted by the AOR on behalf of the university, and must include both a justification for why the project could not be completed in the original planned time frame and a plan to spend down the remaining funds. Please reach out to your pre-award liaison for assistance preparing an NCE request.
