Guidelines for Bridge Funding for Unexpected Loss in Grant Funding

The intent of this document is to provide guidelines for unexpected loss in grant funding such as grant terminations.  People are priority #1 at the UofU and discontinuity in funding can significantly hamper the ability of a scientific team to efficiently restart. These are guidelines for prinicipal investigators, departments, colleges and senior leadership to consider for all University of Utah investigators, regardless of track or rank, to address funding loss.  These are guidelines and each research unit needs to modify as appropriate for what works best for their circumstances and unique contexts.  The VPR is available to assist and provide guidance as needed. 

• Bridge funding should prioritize:
  • Students to complete degree-critical work
  • Critical staff who support research to remain employed
    • Staff should be directed and supported toward research that will likely be funded during this bridge period.
  • Ensure that cell lines, animal colonies, data, cohorts, and other resources necessary for anticipated future work that will be critical for external fundingremain intact.
• Faculty salaries, benefits, and travel should not be supported with bridge funding.
• Bridge funding should not be used to backfill overspent or delayed posting of billing to a grant.
• OSP must set up a BRIDGE account for tracking of funds if continued support after the grant is terminated is approved.
• Bridge funding can not be a long-term solution.
• Merit compensation should be suspended during bridge funding for any bridge funding coming from outside the investigator’s development account or departmental sources. Departments may have their own policies regarding merit compensation during bridge support.

Where should Bridge Funding come from?

• An investigator’s development account or remaining start-up funding are the first sources of bridge funding
• The next source of support is the Department followed by College for faculty not housed within a Center or Institute.
• Faculty in Centers or Institutes that receive enhanced F &A cost reimbursable funds should also work with their Center or Institute Director, which may have specific bridgefunding policies.
• If additional funding from other sources (i.e. SVPs, VPR) is needed beyond the sources listed above, it should be evaluated on case to case basis with regard to previous sources provided and spending patterns.
• The investigator should be making significant progress towards reestablishing grant support.
• The investigator will not hire new graduate students, post docs, or staff until extramural funding is secured.
• Bridge funds will not be allocated to any research where insufficient budgeting or misuse of funds has led to a deficit.