Suspension or termination at the request of a Grantee

The implementation of a project may become temporarily impossible for a Grantee due to unforeseeable factors.

If a Grantee has already completed at least one project within Project Catalyst and wishes to ask for a suspension of its present project, it may request the Fund Operator to authorise a suspension for up to 6 months. Each project can submit only one (1) suspension request per fund. In such a scenario, the Grantee shall email the Fund Operator with the information listed in the following links: all projects up to and including Fund9 are requested to refer to guidance here, and projects from F10 onwards should refer to guidance here.

A request for suspension should NOT be used to justify situations caused by a Grantee’s negligence or by events that could reasonably have been anticipated.

A Grantee will be informed in writing by the Fund Operator whether its request for a suspension has been approved or not. Should the request be approved by the Fund Operator, the Grantee will be entitled to suspend project delivery for the duration of the suspension. Monthly milestone payments will also be suspended during the suspension period.

Once the period of suspension is over, a Grantee that is delivering a project based on a Statement of Milestones (SoM) is requested to submit a revised SoM in the Milestone Module for the Fund Operator’s approval within 14 calendar days from the end of the suspension period. Grantees which have non-SoM projects are requested to send an email to [e-mail] within 14 calendar days from the last day of suspension period, informing the Fund Operator about restarting of the project. Failure by a Grantee to comply with the requirements of this paragraph may lead to a project being terminated by the Fund Operator.

Not all modifications related to a project implementation timeline must necessarily lead to the suspension of a project. There are situations where the timing of implementation and delivery of deliverables may be achieved by an amendment of the project scope or delivery plan. It is highly recommended that before initiating the procedure for suspension, Grantees informally discuss with the Fund Operator if there is a need to suspend (part of) the project, or if the changes can be accommodated with a project amendment submitted as a change request.

A Grantee that desires to terminate a project must submit a Project Cancellation Statement to the Fund Operator with following details:

1. Name of the project, Project URL on Ideascale;

2. Repository where the project output is being stored;

3. Progress report showing proof of work completed and in flight work up to the date of cancelation;

4. A comparison between the expected outcome of the project as set out in the Project Proposal and what was actually achieved;

5. A description of how grant funds received up to the proposed date of termination were spent;

6. A short 2-5 mins video explaining the circumstances which lead to the Grantee requesting a cancellation of the project Video link needs to be accessible by the public:

   • Video has to be in a high quality - 720p or 1080p only;

   • Please note we can only accept Youtube or Vimeo links for your video, videos that sit on your shared drive will not be accepted;

   • A plan for wrapping up the project in a way that is visible to the wider Catalyst Community for review.

7. Project Cancellation Statement will be published in Public Reporting Tracker in the tab suspended/terminated projects.

Grantees whose funding is terminated for whatever reason, may be required by the Fund Operator, to return some or all of the funds already paid to them in the course of the project.