Earlier this week, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research sent principal investigators a message regarding bridge funding support for federal grant and contract interruptions. The message states, “Given the many serious implications of funding interruptions, campus is committing a limited amount of central bridge funding to help extend school, college, and division (S/C/D) funding for eligible federal grant or contract work that is frozen, unexpectedly terminated, receives stop work orders, or experiences a disruption in federal payments. This central funding is to be used in addition to school, college, and division funding to help us, collectively, navigate some of the current challenges.”

The college is committed to investing in a healthy research future and to meeting commitments to CALS’ graduate students to the greatest extent possible.

Bridge funding is intended to help ensure our students complete their degree. We also want to maintain research materials to the extent possible, realizing that this may reduce work to a maintenance level to decrease costs. To ensure transparency and strategic resource allocation, the college requires that all budgetary shortfall requests flow through the respective departments. This process ensures that departmental leadership can assess that both the PI and departmental resources are utilized prior to making requests at the college/campus level. 

Eligibility requirements include:

• Instances where previously awarded federal grant or contract dollars have been interrupted, or instances where there are funding delays for previously awarded federal grants or contracts, are eligible to apply for central bridge funding support. This includes interruptions or delays in receiving payments of federal dollars under sub-awards to UW-Madison.
• Terminations may also be eligible if they have:
  • a plausible pathway to alternative future funding; or
  • needs associated with safely winding down activities; or
  • significant research benefits from a short-term infusion of funding (e.g., a longitudinal study nearing its end or a final data collection that will permit publication).
• Grant life cycle non-renewals are not eligible.
• Payments to external sub-awardees are not eligible.

Most categories of expenditures within federal grant and contract support are eligible, with an especially high priority placed on graduate student support. Requests may be for up to six months of support, though requests should focus on the greatest needs and consider what reductions in originally proposed funding are feasible. (Note that while salary support is an included category, faculty summer salary support is not eligible through the campus program.)

Submission Process

To request funds, please submit the online cover sheet form and upload additional details in this Word document that is also linked in the cover sheet form. The college will review, prioritize and forward requests to the Madison Budget Office. Please contact Troy Runge if you have any questions on this process.

These funds are meant to be short-term allocations of up to six months, as the funding environment continues to change. Bridge funds to support graduate students will be the top priority for the college.

Applications will be reviewed monthly, and, to the extent possible, PIs should plan ahead to make requests in advance of when the funding will be needed. Requests received by CALS by the 10th of the month will receive a decision on receiving college funds by the end of the month. This also includes cases where the request will be forwarded to the Madison Budget Office for matching campus funds.

When requesting support, PIs should document what was done with existing individual and departmental resources (grant funds, discretionary accounts) as the first source of funding. Priority should be placed on maintaining support for graduate students, as they are critical to the long-term success of research programs within departments, and UW–Madison as a whole. Investigators should highlight efforts made to realign funding, such as adjusting research expenditures, reducing personnel support, or securing additional external funding, to sustain graduate student training and research continuity. In cases of expected prolonged shortfalls, PIs should also consider alternate research plans for graduate students that reduce expenditures while ensuring they can successfully complete their degrees. This may include modifying project scopes, leverage shared resources, or identify complementary funding sources.