Contents

• Overview
• What Does It Mean to Close an Award Cycle?
• ⚠️Important Considerations
• When to Close a Cycle
  • Closing Rolling vs. Deadline-Based Cycles
  • What Happens When You Close a Rolling Cycle?
  • What Happens When You Close a Rolling Cycle?
• How to Close a Cycle
   

Overview

This guide shows Program Admins how to close an award cycle in Next and what to expect after closing.
 

What Does It Mean to Close an Award Cycle?

Closing an award cycle marks the official end of a funding or program round in Next. Once all applications have been reviewed, decisions communicated, and awards issued, you can close the cycle to finalize the round and prepare for the next one. Closed cycles remain visible as historical records.

Closing a Cycle: 

• Updates applicant statuses 
• Triggers automated notifications (⚠️in deadline cycles only - closing a rolling cycle does not trigger any email notifications at this time) 
• In rolling programs, allows you to publish your next funding cycle
• Preserves the cycle as a historical record

⚠️Important Considerations

- Post-Award Activities Continue Normally. Closing a cycle does not interrupt ongoing post-award work. 

• Admins can still: 
  • Approve, reject, or request revisions on post-award reports
  • Initiate reimbursements, disbursements, and award agreement amendments
  • Track goals and milestones
• Awardees can still:
  • Submit post-award reports
  • Log expenses for reimbursement
  • Track disbursements
  • Receive award agreement amendments
  • Manage goals and milestones

- Keep Your Workflow Published. Do not unpublish your workflow when closing a cycle. Unpublishing hides cycle data and is not recommended as part of the cycle closure process. 

- Cycle Closure Is Permanent. Once a cycle is closed, it cannot be undone through the interface.  This also applies to all applicant status changes triggered by the close. To reopen a cycle or revert any statuses, please submit a support ticket.  

When to Close a Cycle

Close your award cycle when:

• Your awarding process is complete
• All awards have been issued to selected recipients
• All awardees have accepted or declined their awards (⚠️ If awardees have not yet accepted their award when a cycle is closed, their status automatically updates to "Declined.")

Closing Rolling vs. Deadline-Based Cycles 

What happens when you close an award cycle depends on your cycle type. The sections below explain what to expect for closing in a rolling cycle and a deadline-based cycle. 

➡️Not sure which cycle type you have? See Deadline-Based vs. Rolling Cycles. 

What Happens When You Close a Rolling Cycle? 

⚠️ IMPORTANT: No denial notification emails are sent to applicants when a rolling cycle is closed. Automated notifications are only triggered in deadline-based cycles. 

When you close a rolling cycle:

• Cycle Status:
  • The cycle status updates to "Awarding Closed."
• Intake Stage Applicants (Note: This is the only stage in your workflow where statuses stay the same when you close the award cycle): 
  • Remaining applicants in an Intake stage who were not previously disqualified remain in their current status (e.g., "Submitted," "Revisions Requested") in both the admin and applicant views. 
• Review Stage Applicants:
  • Remaining applicants in a Review stage who were not previously disqualified are updated to: 
    • Admin view: “Denied”
    • Applicant view: “Under Review”
• Waitlisted Applicants:
  • Waitlisted applicants are updated to: 
    • Admin view: “Denied”
    • Applicant view: “Not Selected”
• Awarding Stage Applicants: 
  • If an applicant accepted the offer: 
    • Admin view: Accepted
    • Applicant view: Awarded
      • The award agreement will show as "Accepted" when the applicant goes to Your Awards > View Award > Award Agreement.
  • If an applicant declined or did not respond to the offer:
    • Admin view: “Declined”
    • Applicant view: “Selected”
      • The award agreement will show as "Declined" when the applicant goes to Applications > Review Award > Award Agreement.

📌Parallel Cycles Note: For programs with rolling cycles, you must close the current cycle before you can publish the next one. If you need to run parallel cycles, submit a support ticket to have your program set up for that. 

What Happens When You Close a Deadline-Based Cycle? 

When you close a deadline-based cycle:

⚠️ IMPORTANT: In deadline-based cycles, to close a cycle, all awardees must have been notified. 

• Cycle Status:
  • The cycle status updates to "Awarding Closed."
• Waitlisted Applicants:
  • Waitlisted applicants are updated to: 
    • Admin view: “Denied” 
    • Applicant view: “Not Selected” and sent the Applicant Denied email notification.
• Awarding Stage Applicants: 
  • If an applicant accepted the offer: 
    • Admin view: “Accepted”
    • Applicant view: “Awarded”
      • The award agreement will show as "Accepted" when the applicant goes to Your Awards > View Award > Award Agreement.
  • If an applicant declined or did not respond to the offer:
    • Admin view: “Declined”
    • Applicant view: “Selected”
      • The award agreement will show as "Declined" when the applicant goes to Applications > Review Award > Award Agreement.

📌Parallel Cycle Note: For programs with deadline-based cycles, the current cycle does not have to be closed, but there must be at least one awardee in the Award Recipient stage before you can publish the next cycle. 
 

How to Close a Cycle

1. In the Award Cycle, click Awarding in the left-hand menu. 
    
2. Next to the Award Recipients view at the top of the page, click the gear icon. 
   
   
    

3. Select Close Awarding Process.
   
   

    

4. In the confirmation pop-up, click Close Process. 
   
   
    
5. The status note at the top of the page will change to “Awarding Process Ended” and show who closed the cycle and when. 

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