Tri-Agency Grant Extensions and Financial Reporting Updates

This message is sent on behalf of Elvie Coletta, Director, Research Financial Management Services (RFMS) and Olga Naiberguer, Director, Office of Sponsored Research (OSR)

Dear Research Community,

Over the last few weeks many directives were communicated by the Tri-Agency regarding grant extensions and financial reporting deadlines due to COVID19. Below is a summary of the directives received:

CIHR Grants - Grant Time Extensions:

Further to the CIHR announcements made on April 2 and April 3, by CIHR President Dr. Michael Strong, the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) and Research Financial Management Services (RFMS) received numerous questions from the research community regarding the implementation of the announced measures.

OSR and RFMS will be extending (without additional funding) all McGill-led CIHR grants that are currently ending between March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021 (inclusive). RFMS will notify those affected by the one-year extension via email; it is anticipated that all extensions will be completed by April 17.

Please note that we are currently seeking clarifications from CIHR regarding the measures announced, specifically relating to the financial extensions that may be granted to Investigator-Initiated research grants further to the cancellation of the Spring 2020 Project Grant competition. We will advise the community once we learn more.

SSHRC Grants - Grant Time Extensions:

SSHRC announced that academic institutions may immediately approve extension requests up to 12 months for active grants with an end date between February 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 inclusively. This provision applies to all grants, regardless of whether they have received a previous time extension of any length for any reason (including, where applicable, automatic extensions). The intent of this provision is to allow grantees to continue spending grant funds. Under this exceptional framework, extensions should be considered only if the research has been delayed due to COVID-19.

RFMS will contact the researchers who have active research grants that meet the above dates criteria to assess the need for an extension. RFMS will work closely with OSR to process these extensions and will be responsible for notifying Tri-Agency.

NSERC Discovery Grants - Grant Time Extensions:

New information was communicated by NSERC relating to Discovery Grants on April 8. We are currently seeking clarifications from NSERC relating to the measures announced and we will provide updates once NSERC provides clarifications.

All other NSERC Grants - Grant Time Extensions:

NSERC announced that academic institutions may immediately approve extension requests up to 12 months for active grants with an end date between February 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 inclusively. This provision applies to all grants, regardless of whether they have received a previous time extension of any length for any reason (including, where applicable, automatic extensions). The intent of this provision is to allow grantees to continue spending grant funds. Under this exceptional framework, extensions should be considered only if the research has been delayed due to COVID-19.

RFMS will contact the researchers who have active research grants that meet the above dates criteria to assess the need for an extension. RFMS will work closely with OSR to process these extensions and will be responsible for notifying Tri-Agency

Financial Reporting Deadline Extended - Applies to NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, CRC

The deadline date for submission of financial statements (Form 300) for the 2019-2020 grant year (April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020) has been extended to September 30, 2020.

We thank you in advance for your patience.

Should you have any question, please contact: sonia.pietraroia [at] mcgill.ca

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