More time but not more money

Your request will get you more time to make progress on the broad project objectives you set forth in your application. But you will receive no additional MDCP award funds. This means, for example, that if two months prior to your original project end date you have $80,000 of MDCP funding remaining, you can request and receive an additional 12 months of project period. During the extended period you not receive any additional funds but you will continue to be able to draw down your remaining MDCP award funds as you continue to pursue project objectives. If, by contrast, you did not request an extension, then your project period would end within two months. You would not be allowed to draw down any more funds after the end of your original project period.

Justification for extending the project period

Almost by definition, a request for an extension is to have more time to pursue the project objectives set forth in the original application. If, by contrast, you wish to pursue very different objectives, you should be requesting a change in scope. So, an extension request is pretty straight-forward, you need more time to pursue project objectives. In your brief explanation you may wish to list a couple of specific activities you wish to undertake during the extended period. You may also wish to explain that the schedule for some of the planned activities has slipped and you need more time. You don't need a very long explanation. Three to five sentences usually suffices.

Here is something that is generally not considered to be a good reason to grant an extension: you have unspent award funds. At the end of an MDCP project, unspent award funds are returned to the U.S. Treasury. We grant extension requests because you have project activity to undertake, not just because you have funds remaining.

Benefits of requesting an extension

1. Complete project activity that was postponed

2. Continue to pursue project objectives

3. Continue to report your performance to ITA

Can you continue to report exports during the extended period after the award funds are exhausted?

Yes. For example, if you exhaust the last of your award funds six months into your extended project period, you still have six more months to submit quarterly performance reports. It takes time for export sales to percolate. This allows you more time to claim more sales. It makes it much more likely that the value of exports generated by your project are captured and reported. MDCP projects with extended project periods outperform those that are not extended.

The MDCP award is a finite amount. You may not claim more MDCP funds than the amount of your MDCP award even if time remains in your project period after your MDCP award funds are depleted.

Budget of remaining funds

In addition to your textual justification that you type in Grants Online, you will want to attach a brief budget. The budget should be just for the extended period. In practice, you just take the remaining federal and non-federal share you reported on your most recent financial report (SF-425) and allocate it among the budget categories used on the SF-424A. You should not have to submit a detailed budget if you are more or less continuing to do the same or similar activities that were listed in your original budget. The example above is a guide. It was not submitted on an SF-424A and you don't have to use the 424A. Just submit your proposed use of remaining funs with a break-down similar to what you see above.

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Information on this page should give you enough guidance to submit a successful extension request. If you want a much more detailed explanation that is not specific to MDCP projects, you can refer to this Grants Online page on award action requests: no-cost extensions.