BLUF: Because the FY16 budget has been cut significantly from $12M to about $9M, FY16 projects will be authorized 2 years to perform their work. To execute this, we are asking PIs to budget about 1/3 of their overall budget in Year 2 (FY17). Please plan for your FY16 accounts to be fully spent by 9/30/16, and then a new account will be provided the following year using FY17 funds. This strategy enables the program to continue to fund as many projects as possible while not overspending the FY16 budget.

Dear Colleagues:

As you are aware, the NPS Naval Research Program (NRP) has suffered cuts to its budget in FY15 and beyond due to our slow overall execution rate compared with the 90%-expended-in-year-1 expectation. The FY16 budget was cut significantly because of this from $12M down to about $9M, although that $3M cut is programmed to be restored over the FY17 to FY19 period.

Rather than drastically reducing the number of new starts in FY16, it was decided by the members of the Technical Review Board, with support from our Comptroller and my office, that we will keep the number of new starts at the $12M level but split the project funding across the FY16 and FY17 fiscal years. This has the dual benefit of starting more projects and ensuring that we will meet the 90% expenditure requirement in FY16.

What does this mean for you? It means that most of your projects will need to extend into FY17. On average, everyone will need to place about 1/3 of their project funding in year 2 (i.e., in FY17). To implement this spend strategy, you will need to submit two separate budgets; one for FY16 and one for FY17. No carryover or extensions of the FY16 funds will be granted because of the 90% execution requirement. Therefore, please provide a FY16 spend plan that is attainable based on the support you have available today. The revised spending plan templates are available on the NRP website.

The Topic Sponsor must be informed and agreeable to the later date on the deliverable. If the Topic Sponsor is not amenable to a later deliverable date, or if the project itself will experience unreasonable difficulties based on the extended timeline, please contact the NRP Program manager (Mr. Rod Abbott, rpabbott@nps.edu, 832-656-2579) for further consideration.

To accommodate this added complexity in budgeting, the FY16 PIs will be given an extra week to develop their proposals. Please submit your fully developed and fully signed FY16 NRP proposal package by September 4th to NPS_NRP_POC@nps.edu. If you have any questions about your budgets, please contact the NRP program office.

Sincerely,

Jeff Paduan

Dean of Research
Jeffrey D. Paduan, Code 04            (831) 656-3350; 2038/FAX
Naval Postgraduate School             paduan@nps.edu
Monterey, CA  93943                       http://www.oc.nps.edu/~paduan/