On April 20, 2026, NIH released Notice NOT-OD-26-072, "Update – NIH Implementation of Uniform Administrative Requirements for Federal Financial Assistance." It reverses two indirect-cost flexibilities NIH had granted institutions little more than a year earlier, reinstating older, more restrictive rules. It has drawn far less attention than the separate, heavily litigated 15% indirect-cost cap policy — but for the research administration offices that manage NIH subawards and negotiate rate agreements, it changes real numbers on real budgets, effective now.
This piece explains what NOT-OD-26-072 actually does, why NIH issued it, and — deliberately, since the two are easy to conflate — how it differs from the indirect-cost-cap litigation that has otherwise dominated coverage of NIH and F&A rates over the past year.
What NOT-OD-26-072 does
The notice rescinds two flexibilities NIH had adopted in NOT-OD-25-059 (issued January 13, 2025, for awards with budget periods beginning on or after October 1, 2024):
- Subaward F&A threshold. NOT-OD-25-059 had adopted the updated Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC) definition from 2 CFR Part 200, which allowed indirect costs to be charged on the first $50,000 of each subaward. NOT-OD-26-072 reverses this: NIH F&A can again only be charged on the first $25,000 of each subaward — the long-standing threshold that predates the 2024 Uniform Guidance update.
- De minimis indirect cost rate. NOT-OD-25-059 had recognized the updated 15% de minimis rate for organizations without a current negotiated F&A rate. NOT-OD-26-072 reverts this to the longstanding 10% de minimis rate.
Multiple sponsored-programs offices that track NIH guide notices closely — including COGR, Harvard’s Office for Sponsored Programs, and UCSF’s Office of Sponsored Research — describe the practical effect the same way: institutions and subrecipients that had already adjusted budgets, subaward agreements, or F&A calculations to the briefly available $50,000/15% flexibilities need to revert to the $25,000/10% figures for NIH awards going forward.
Why NIH reversed course: a statutory trigger, not a policy choice
NIH’s own framing, corroborated by COGR’s analysis of the notice, ties the reversal to a specific appropriations provision: the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-75, Division B, Title II, Sec. 224) requires that the indirect-cost provisions in 45 CFR Part 75 continue to apply to NIH awards "in the same manner as" they did in FY2017. That statutory language is what has, for several years running, prevented NIH from adopting each successive round of Uniform Guidance liberalization for indirect costs specifically — this is a recurring appropriations rider, not a one-off. Because the rider was renewed for FY2026, NIH could not carry forward the $50,000 subaward threshold or the 15% de minimis rate into the new fiscal year, regardless of what 2 CFR Part 200 itself now allows for other federal agencies.
One detail worth flagging precisely because it’s easy to miss: secondary sources reviewing the notice (Attain Partners’ summary among them) indicate the capitalization/equipment threshold increase NIH had also adopted in NOT-OD-25-059 — raising the equipment threshold excluded from MTDC from $5,000 to $10,000 — was not among the items rescinded. If accurate, that means NOT-OD-26-072 is a targeted rollback of the two indirect-cost-specific flexibilities the appropriations rider constrains, not a wholesale return to every pre-2024 Uniform Guidance figure. Institutions should confirm this point directly against the notice text or their cognizant agency guidance before relying on it for a specific budget decision.
Not the same story as the 15% indirect-cost cap
It is worth being explicit about this, because a general search on "NIH indirect costs 2026" will overwhelmingly surface a different, already-resolved story. In February 2025, NIH separately attempted to impose a flat 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursement across the board, regardless of an institution’s actual negotiated F&A rate. That cap was blocked by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on April 4, 2025, and the block was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeals on January 5, 2026, which found that the same appropriations rider described above bars NIH from displacing negotiated F&A rates with a uniform figure (coverage: Inside Higher Ed, STAT).
NOT-OD-26-072 is a separate, later, and much quieter action. It doesn’t touch negotiated F&A rates at all, and it isn’t a cap on anything — it’s a reversion of two specific Uniform Guidance-derived flexibilities (the subaward threshold and the de minimis rate) via the ordinary notice-and-implementation mechanism NIH uses every year to align its award terms with statute. Read our guide on NIH’s proposed 15% indirect cost cap for the litigated story; this piece is about the quieter one. Conflating the two would misstate what actually changed and when.
Timeline
- January 13, 2025 — NOT-OD-25-059 adopts the updated $50,000 MTDC subaward threshold and 15% de minimis rate for NIH awards with budget periods beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
- February 2025 — NIH separately announces the (unrelated) 15% across-the-board indirect-cost cap; blocked in court within weeks and remains blocked through the First Circuit’s January 2026 ruling.
- March 25, 2026 — NOT-OD-26-057 publishes the revised NIH Grants Policy Statement (Rev. March 2026) for FY2026, consolidating Guide Notices in effect through mid-March 2026 — including, at that point, the NOT-OD-25-059 flexibilities.
- April 20, 2026 — NOT-OD-26-072 rescinds the subaward threshold and de minimis rate flexibilities, reinstating the $25,000/10% figures, citing the FY2026 appropriations rider.
What this means for pre-award and post-award offices
For institutions and subrecipients working on NIH awards, the practical checklist is short but consequential:
- Budgets and budget justifications for new and competing NIH proposals should use the $25,000 F&A-bearing subaward threshold and, where applicable, the 10% de minimis rate — not the briefly available $50,000/15% figures. See our guides on NIH modular budgets and budget justification narratives.
- Subaward agreements issued or amended after the notice should reflect the reverted threshold — relevant if your office negotiates subawards per our guide on subaward agreement negotiation.
- Existing awards already budgeted at the $50,000/15% figures may need institution-specific guidance on whether and how the reversal applies retroactively — this is exactly the kind of question COGR’s "points to consider" document and your NIH program/grants management contact are the right first stop for, rather than assuming a uniform answer applies everywhere.
- General federal grant compliance and closeout processes are otherwise unaffected — see our federal grant compliance checklist and federal grant closeout guide for the broader picture this notice sits inside.
More broadly, this is a useful reminder that NIH’s indirect-cost terms don’t move in lockstep with the general 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Guidance that governs most other federal awards — a standing appropriations rider keeps NIH’s indirect-cost provisions tied to FY2017 treatment specifically, which is exactly why NIH has had to issue rescission notices like this one rather than simply adopting each Uniform Guidance revision as it lands.
Related questions
Does NOT-OD-26-072 change negotiated F&A rates? No. It doesn’t touch institutions’ negotiated F&A rate agreements at all — it only reverses the subaward MTDC threshold and the de minimis rate available to entities without a negotiated rate.
Is this the same as the 15% indirect-cost cap that was blocked in court? No — that is a separate, unrelated policy (a proposed flat cap on all indirect cost reimbursement) that remains blocked following the First Circuit’s January 2026 ruling. NOT-OD-26-072 is a distinct, later action addressing different terms.
What subaward threshold applies to NIH awards now? NIH F&A can be charged on the first $25,000 of each subaward, per NOT-OD-26-072 — not the $50,000 figure briefly available under NOT-OD-25-059.
What de minimis rate applies to NIH awards without a negotiated F&A rate? 10%, reverted from the 15% rate NOT-OD-25-059 had recognized.
This piece reflects notices and secondary analysis available as of July 2026. Confirm current terms directly against the live NIH Guide notice and your institution’s cognizant negotiation agency before applying any figure to a specific award.
